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HUG H  LATIMER  BURLESON 


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Burleson,  Hugh  Latimer,  bp . , 

1865- 
The  conquest  of  the 


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THE  CONQUEST  OF 
THE  CONTINEN 


BY 

HUGH  LATIMER  BURLESON 


'^Lihe  a  mighty  army 
Moves  the  Church  of  GodJ' 


New  York 

Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society 

281   4th  Avenue 


Copyright,  1 9 1 1 ,  by 
DOMESTIC  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 


Second  Edition 
Ninth  Thousand 


FOREWOED 

THIS  book  is  the  outcome  of  a  course  of 
lectures  given  in  two  succeeding  sum- 
mers at  the  Cambridge  Conference  for 
Church  Work.  Only  because  of  the  encourage- 
ment there  received  does  this  volume  now  ap- 
pear. The  author  finds  himself  under  many 
obligations — so  many  that  it  will  be  impossible 
to  mention  all  the  sources  from  which  inspira- 
tion and  assistance  have  come.  Particular  ac- 
knowledgment should  be  made  of  the  help 
found  in  '^The  Territorial  Growth  of  the  Uni- 
ted States/'  by  Dr.  W.  A.  Mowry,  which  is  the 
basis  of  Chapter  I.  Many  others  have  fur- 
nished help  and  suggestion  which,  interwoven 
with  the  author's  personal  experience,  give 
these  pages  whatever  of  value  and  vividness 
they  possess.  They  have  been  penned  in  the 
hope  that  they  may  throw  some  light  of  interest 
and  romance  upon  the  neglected  home  mission- 
ary and  the  domestic  field,  and  that  those  who 
read  them  may  see  the  Church  as  the  great 
missionary  agency,  and  the  Gospel  delivered  by 
and  in  the  Church  as  the  supreme  Missionary 
Message. 

3 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


Title  Opposite  Page 

Frontispiece:    Map  Showing  Territorial  Expansions. 

Rt.  Rev.  William  White,  D.D 11 

The  Tower  of  the  Old  Church  on  Jamestown  Island 34 

Rt.  Rev.  John  Henry  Hobart,  D.D 42 

Rt.  Rev.  Alexander  V.  Griswold,  D.D 46 

Rt.  Rev.  Richard  Channing  Moore,  D.D 50 

Rt.  Rev.  Philander  Chase,  D.D 64 

Bishop  G.  W.  Doane 68 

Bishop  C.  P.  Mcllvaine 68 

Bishop  Kemper  in  his  Youth 68 

Rt.  Rev.  Jackson  Kemper,  D.D 62 

Preaching  Cross  on  the  Site  of  Nashotah's  First  Altar 70 

Rt.  Rev.  James  H.  Otey,  D.D 78 

Ezekiel  G.  Gear 86 

James  Llo jd  Breck 86 

Mission  House,  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  1850 86 

Henry  Benjamin  Whipple,  First  Bishop  of  Minnesota 94 

Enmegahbowh  and  Bishop  Whipple 98 

First  Building  of  the  Seabury  Mission 98 

William  Hobart  Hare,  Bishop  of  Niobrara  and  South  Dakota  102 

Bishop  Hare  and  the  Pupils  of  One  of  His  Indian  Schools.  106 

Sunset  Service  on  the  South  Dakota  Prairies 110 

The  Reverend  St.  Michael  Fackler 114 

Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle,  Presiding  Bishop  of  the  Church. .  118 

The  Main  Street  of  Boise  as  Bishop  Tuttle  Found  It 126 

St.  Mark's  Hospital,  Salt  Lake 134 

Franciscan  Mission  at  Santa  Barbara,  California 142 

First  Church  Building  on  the  Pacific  Coast 146 

A  Modern  Saint  Francis — Charles  Caleb  Pierce 150 

Pajst  and  Present  Leaders  in  the  Far  West 158 

William  Ingraham  Kip,  First  Bishop  of  California...  158 

Benjamin  Wistar  Morris,  Second  Bishop  of  Oregon..  158 

Bishop  Spalding,  of  Utah 158 

Bishop  Nichols,  of  California 158 

Rev.  John  W.  Chapman 166 

Rev.  Octavius  Parker 166 

Ice  on  the  Yukon  Breaking  up 166 

Peter  Trimble  Rowe,  First  Bishop  of  Alaska 174 

Bishop  Rowe  Preaching  on  the  Banks  of  the  Yukon 182 

Anne  C.  Farthing— Buried  on  the  Battlefield 182 

Map  Showing  Dioceses  and  Districts  and  the  Eight  Mis- 
sionary  Departments    187 


PROLOGUE 


*'  UNTO     THE     UTMOST     SEA  »' 

NAKROW  and  strait  the  cradle  of  our  race 
Lay  by  the  border  of  the  Eastern  Sea. 
For  that  which  once  seemed  wide  enough  domain 
While  yet  with  childish  feet  the  nation  walked 
Between  the  ocean  and  the  mountain  wall 
That  towered  to  westward,  was  a  garden  plot 
When  restless,  eager  youth  came  on  apace; 
And  the  new  flag,  but  late  unfurled  to  air. 
Yearned  for  an  azure  field  wherein  to  plant 
The  silver  stars  that  told  of  states  new-born. 

And  so  through  mountain-pass  and  forest-aisle, — 

Even  before  the  din  of  war  had  ceased 

And  minute-men  had  turned  them  to  the  plough, — 

With  wary  feet  and  keen  discerning  eye, 

Grasping  his  ready  rifle,  but  with  face 

Set  ever  westward  toward  the  lands  beyond, 

The  eager  Leather-stocking  took  his  way. 

And  not  in  vain;   for  when  in  distant  France 
Peace  was  concluded  with  the  mother-land, 
Franklin  and  Jay  and  Adams  claimed  the  realm 
Which  to  the  nation  gave  the  chance  to  live. 
No  longer  did  the  Alleghanies  rise 
To  place  a  barrier  which  we  might  not  pass; 
But  to  that  central  river  whose  great  flood 
Seeks  with  unerring  course  the  Southern  Sea 
The  tide  of  conquest  poured  resistlessly. 
And  thus  the  land  of  Lincoln  and  of  Grant 
Was  joined  to  that  of  Washington  and  Lee. 


The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

But  not  for  long  did  even  this  great  space 

Content  the  Young  Eepublic  of  the  West. 

Beyond  the  flood  in  which  De  Soto  sleeps, 

And  on  whose  surface  Indian  canoe 

And  French  bateau,  now  journeying  south,  now  north, 

Had  carried  warrior,  trader,  knight  and  priest, 

Lay  Louisiana,  reaching  from  the  gulf 

To  where  Canadian  boundary  bars  the  way. 

And  stretching  wide  through  prairies  limitless 

Until  upon  the  far  horizon  line 

The  frowning  Eockies  rear  their  snow-white  crests. 

And  lo!  upon  a  day,  Napoleon, 

By  strife  of  old-world  kingdoms  keenly  pressed, 

Bargained  away  an  empire,  for  the  gold 

Which,  turned  to  arms  and  men,  might  give  him  power 

To  work  in  Europe  his  ambition's  dream. 

And  thus  once  more  the  mountains  marked  our  West; 

Yet  beckoned  still,  and  told  of  lands  beyond. 

And  next  to  Spain  we  turned — that  haughty  land 

Whose  power  had  fallen  now  on  evil  days 

Through  Mexico,  her  late-revolted  child. 

And  from  the  mighty  sovereignty  which  once 

Had  boasted  lordship  of  the  great  Southwest 

We  wrested  yet  another  wide  domain. 

And  set  our  flag  beside  the  Western  Sea. 

Not  even  yet  was  the  great  sum  complete, 

Nor  builded  yet  our  nation's  goodly  home; 

For  to  the  north,  where  rolls  the  Oregon, 

With  England  we  contested  sovereignty. 

And  won;  through  sturdy  Whitman,  man  of  God, — 

A  Paul  Eevere  whose  scarce-remembered  deed 

Was  yet  a  thousand-fold  more  wonderful. 

''Enough!     Enough!"  at  last  the  people  cried, 
''For  us  and  for  our  children  yet  to  be; 
Let  conquest  cease!  estop  the  drum  and  fife! 
And  call  our  goodly  heritage  complete." 


The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Not  so  thought  Seward,  as  he  northward  looked 
To  that  forbidding  land  of  snow  and  ice 
Where  mediaeval  Eussia  held  her  sway, — 
A  solecism  on  this  continent. 
With  treaty  signed  and  purchase  money  given 
The  Stars  and  Stripes  at  one  great  bound  were  set 
Within  the  silence  of  the  Arctic  night, 
Well-nigh  upon  the  apex  of  the  world. 

And  so  it  came  to  pass,  in  God's  good  way, 

That  Briton,  French  and  Spaniard — Russian,  too — 

Each  for  himself  had  grasped  a  goodly  share 

Of  what  is  now  our  land,  but  held  it  fast 

Only  until  our  nation  so  had  grown 

That  each  new  part  it  could  assimilate, 

When  straight  the  ordering  of  His  providence 

Placed  each  in  turn  within  our  hands,  and  made 

The  good  and  spacious  home  wherein  we  dwell. 

Then  praise  to  Him  Who  led  our  fathers  forth! 
And  praise  to  Him  Who  made  the  path  so  plain! 
Until,  to  east  and  west,  to  south  and  north 
Stretches  the  limit  of  our  vast  domain. 
Bless  thou  our  nation.  Lord,  and  grant  that  we 
May  win  it  also  for  Thy  Christ  and  Thee! 


THE  SCOPE  OF  THIS  BOOK 

PROBABLY  each  one  who  reads  this  volume  will 
miss  some  things  which  he  would  have  liked  to 
find.  It  does  not  aspire  to  be  a  history  of  the  Church, 
nor  even  a  complete  record  of  her  missionary  progress 
in  this  country.  An  attempt  to  tell  the  whole  of  that 
great  story  would  have  been  a  task  impossible  of  ac- 
complishment in  a  single  volume.  The  aim  was  rather 
to  show  how,  from  feeble  beginnings  and  utmost  dis- 
couragement, the  Church  has  been  led  to  self-knowledge 
and  wide  opportunity.  For  this  purpose  differing  types 
of  missionary  work  were  chosen.  So  far  as  possible 
each  was  exemplified  in  some  conspicuous  missionary 
leader,  and  so  grouped  as  to  form  a  chronological  and 
geographical  progression — a  picture  of  the  Church 
marching  onward  across  the  continent.  Many  subjects 
of  large  interest  and  significance  were  necessarily 
omitted.  Many  persons  whose  work  deserves  equal 
praise  with  that  herein  set  forth  receive  slight  mention, 
or  none  at  all.  The  early  missionaries  of  the  S.  P.  G., 
the  urgent  religious  needs  of  the  l!^egro  race,  the  mis- 
sionary history  of  the  South  as  a  whole,  are  instances 
in  point.  The  author  wishes  that  he  might  have  told  a 
larger  and  more  comprehensive  story,  yet  hopes  that 
the  story  as  told  will  prove  an  inspiring  one,  and  will 
perhaps  stimulate  other  and  abler  pens  to  write  of  the 
broad  fields  herein  untouched  and  of  the  heroic,  wise 
and  saintly  men  whose  deeds  are  not  here  recorded. 


RT.    REV.    WILLIAM   WHITE,   D.D. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF 
THE  CONTINENT 


THE  FIELD  OF  CONQUEST 

PKOFOUNDLY    must  the  student  of  his- 
tory be  impressed  as  he  notes  the  steps 
of  that  resistless  progress  by  which  our 
nation  enlarged  her  borders.    Led  by  the  Di- 
vine Hand  in  paths  she  had  not  sought — going 
out  oftentimes  not  knowing  whither 

God  in  History  -,  j_  i        ^  i    i  i  p  i 

she  went — she  lound  herselr  march- 
ing by  giant  strides  toward  the  western  sea. 
The  Northwest  Territory,  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase, the  Mexican  Cession  and  the  Oregon  Set- 
tlement are  the  four  great  landmarks  of  her 
progress,  and  as  one  reviews  them  he  finds  him- 
self thinking  reverently,  in  the  quiet  of  his  own 
heart,  concerning  Him  ^^who  maketh  the  devices 
of  the  people  to  be  of  none  effect  and  casteth 
out  the  counsels  of  princes. ' ' 

This  is  not  a  matter  chiefly  of  metes  and 

11 


12         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

bounds,  of  conventions,  treaties  and  other  such 
like  dry  and  dusty  aif  airs ;  when  studied  closely 
there  is  in  it  a  marvellous  significance.  Step  by 
step  wonderful  developments  were  unfolding. 
Each  brave  exploration,  each  hardy  colonizing, 
each  hurling  of  the  battle-gage  or  drafting  of 
the  terms  of  peace,  was  imperceptibly  and  un- 
intentionally drawing  the  sundered  parts  of 
our  country  into  great  homogeneous  sections, 
and  placing  them  close  at  hand  where,  at  the 
fitting  time,  and  as  her  strength  developed,  the 
young  Eepublic  of  the  West  might  grasp  them, 
one  by  one,  and  bind  them  on  her  as  the  jewels 
of  a  bride. 

None  of  the  actors  in  these  brilliant  episodes 
of  history  dreamed  what  the  end  would  be. 
They  explored  and  colonized,  they  marched  and 
fought,  they  plotted  and  traded  and  merrily 
robbed  one  another,  for  the  glory  of  king  and 
country;  whether  it  were  George,  or  Charles, 
or  Philii3 — Dutch,  English,  French  or  Spanish 
— mattered  little.  Each  waged  his  battle  or 
played  his  game  of  diplomacy,  casting  his  haz- 
ard into  the  arena  of  the  world  ^s  events,  while 
all  the  time  each  act  and  word  was  building 
more  broad  and  fair  a  spacious  dwelling-place 
for  that  new  nation  whose  form  was  even  then 
dimly  discerned,  by  those  few  who  had  the 
vision,  behind  the  great  curtain  which  veiled 
the  future. 


The  Field  of  Conquest  13 


Our  acquisition  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
is  full  of  vivid  interest. 

Wolfe  began  it  on  the  plains  of  Abraham. 

The  fall  of  Quebec  was  a  crisis  in  the  world. 

It  decided  issues  far  larger  than  ap- 

The  Northwest  ^  ^ 

Territory  pcarcd.     It  was  a  contest  between 

races,  languages,  religions,  and  theories  of  gov- 
ernment; between  Eomance  and  Saxon  ideals; 
between  the  constitutional  rights  of  free  peo- 
ples and  the  absolutism  of  despotic  monarchies. 
But  it  also  brought  under  the  hand  of  England 
not  only  Canada,  but  New  France — the  terri- 
tory of  the  Great  Northwest.* 

On  the  day  when  England,  ^'furiously  im- 
perious'' and  '^ drunk  with  success,"  tore  from 
France  all  her  colonies,  and  divided  between 
herself  and  Spain  the  great  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, she  was  preparing  an  unwilling  gift 
for  those,  her  own  colonies,  as  yet  huddled 
close  to  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic,  and  scarcely 
caring  what  lay  behind  the  barrier  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  Even  then,  in  1763,  a  far-seeing 
Frenchman  foretold  the  issue.  The  Count  de 
Vergennes  exclaimed:  ^^The  consequences  of 
the  entire  cession  of  Canada  are  obvious.     I 

*  Mowry :  The  Territorial  Growth  of  the  United  States, 
page  13. 


14         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

am  persuaded  that  England  will  ere  long  re- 
pent of  having  removed  the  only  check  that 
could  keep  her  colonies  in  awe.  They  stand  no 
longer  in  need  of  her  protection;  she  will  call 
on  them  to  contribute  toward  supporting  the 
burdens  which  they  have  helped  to  bring  upon 
her,  and  they  will  answer  by  striking  off  all  de- 
pendence. '  ^ 

John  Adams  and  John  Jay,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin and  Henry  Laurens  carried  on  the  work, 
when  they,  as  commissioners  of  the  United 
States,  met  in  Paris  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tion to  negotiate  with  Great  Britain  the  terms 
of  peace.  They  had  received  strict  injunctions 
to  do  nothing  without  consulting  France,  to 
which  nation  the  United  States  at  that  time 
felt  a  particular  sense  of  obligation.  Discour- 
aged and  disheartened,  England  did  not  greatly 
care  for  the  Northwest  Territory,  which  she 
had  never  really  colonized.  Half-heartedly  her 
commissioner  suggested  that  the  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  east  of  the  Mississippi 
should  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  Canada.  He 
was  doubtless  more  or  less  prepared  for  Dr. 
Franklin's  prompt  answer:  ^'No,  sir!  if  you 
insist  upon  that  we  go  back  to  Yorktown.''  At 
any  rate  he  yielded  as  immediately  and  as 
gracefully  as  he  could. 

But  France,  the  professed  ally  of  the  United 
States,  had  plans  of  her  own.    Her  statesmen 


The  Field  of  Conquest  15 

threw  their  influence  into  the  scale  in  favor  of 
Spain,  and  her  diplomatists  plotted  to  shut  up 
the  young  republic  between  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Alleghanies,  with  practically  no  territory 
beyond  that  of  the  original  states,  while  Spain 
quietly  possessed  herself  of  the  central  west, 
which  had  slipped  through  England's  fingers. 
Almost  we  were  betrayed  in  the  house  of  our 
friends;  but  John  Jay,  suspecting  the  scheme, 
revealed  his  suspicions  to  Dr.  Franklin  and 
suggested  that  they  ignore  France  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  question.  They  sat  before  the 
fireplace  smoking  their  long-stemmed  clay 
pipes.  Dr.  Franklin  exclaimed,  ^^Sir,  would 
you  break  with  the  positive  commands  of  Con- 
gress !'*  ^'As  readily,''  replied  Jay,  dashing 
his  pipe  to  fragments  on  the  hearth,  ^^as  I 
break  this  pipe."  His  advice  prevailed  and 
the  commissioners  proceeded  to  settle  the  terms 
of  peace  directly  with  the  British  Commis- 
sioner, without  consulting  the  French  minister, 
who  found  too  late  that  he  had  missed  a  chance 
to  influence  the  disposal  of  an  empire. 

So  on  that  thirtieth  day  of  November,  1782. 
the  articles  were  signed  which,  at  a  stroke  of  the 
pen,  removed  our  western  boundary  from  the 
Alleghanies  to  the  Mississippi,  and  doubled  the 
area  of  the  republic.  Thus  did  the  tide  of  terri- 
torial expansion  sweep  over  the  barrier  of  the 
mountains,  and  flow  across   the  uplands   and 


16         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

prairies,  even  to  the  great  river  of  the  central 
plain. 

This  territory  included  the  following  states 
lying  north  of  the  Ohio  Eiver:  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  a  third  of 
Minnesota;  south  of  the  Ohio  were  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Mississippi  and  Alabama. 

It  was  no  mean  heritage  with  which  the  na- 
tion was  thus  dowered.  When  added  to  the 
area  of  the  original  states,  this  gave  the  United 
States  840,000  square  miles — a  domain  eight 
times  that  of  Great  Britain,  five  times  that  of 
France,  and  three  times  as  great  as  the  present 
German  Empire.  It  was  larger  than  Great 
Britain,  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  Holland, 
Italy,  Switzerland,  Germany,  Hungary  and 
Transylvania  combined.* 

It  was  indeed  a  goodly  land  which  God  then 
placed  in  our  hands  to  colonize,  civilize  and 
Christianize  for  Him,  that  it  might  become  a 
fit  home  for  His  children. 


II 

Not  for  long  was  Spain  able  to  hold  the  coun- 
try which  England  compelled  France  to  cede  to 
The  Louisiana      hcr  after  the  fall  of  Quebec  in  1763. 
For  thirty-seven  years  she  retained 

*Mowr7:    The    Territorial    Growth    of    the    United    States, 
page  39. 


The  Field  of  Conquest  17 

this  gigantic  territory,  which  included  every- 
thing west  of  the  Mississippi  from  the  northern 
boundary  of  Mexico  to  the  Canada  line,  with 
the  exception  of  a  square  tract  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest,  called  indefinitely  the  Oregon  Ter- 
ritory— a  sort  of  no-man's-land.  Beset  with 
increasing  difficulties  at  home  and  sinking  grad- 
ually but  surely  from  the  position  of  a  first- 
rate  to  that  of  a  second-rate  power,  Spain  could 
exercise  no  effective  control  over  such  a  domain 
— indeed,  she  never  attempted  to  do  so.  In  her 
poverty  she  was  willing  to  entertain  sugges- 
tions of  purchase,  and  in  due  time  a  buyer  ap- 
peared. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  knew  many  other  things 
besides  the  map  of  Europe,  the  handling  of  an 
invading  army  and  the  making  and  unmaking 
of  kings.  He  was  a  student  of  the  world  and 
had  studied  to  good  purpose  the  geography  of 
North  America.  He  was  not  slow  to  realize 
the  value  of  the  tract  called  Louisiana,  and  his 
teeming  brain  conceived  the  idea  of  building  up 
a  French  empire  in  the  heart  of  North  America. 
Here  was  a  country  fertile  and  delightful,  four 
times  as  large  as  France,  and  easily  accessible 
by  water  through  the  longest  river  in  the  world 
and  its  tributaries.  He  longed  to  regain  the 
lost  land  which  had  been  wrested  from  France 
in  an  evil  hour,  and  in  1800,  by  a  secret  treaty, 
Spain  re-ceded  the  province  to  France. 


18         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

But  like  other  dreams  of  this  great  dreamer, 
the  plan  came  to  nought.  Indeed  this  very  act, 
which  might  so  grievously  have  injured  our 
nation,  fell  out  entirely  to  her  advantage.  Eng- 
land, raging  with  a  hatred  and  fear  of  Na- 
poleon which  amounted  almost  to  madness, 
heard  of  the  secret  cession  and  straightway 
planned  to  attack  Louisiana.  With  her  base  in 
Canada  and  her  command  of  the  sea,  she  could 
do  this  far  more  easily  than  Napoleon  could 
defend  it.  He  was  general  enough  to  realize  the 
hopelessness  of  such  a  struggle. 

Since  within  this  territory  was  included  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  city  of  New 
Orleans,  the  question  of  its  sale  was  of  vital 
importance  in  the  development  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  which  depended  for  its  outlet 
upon  the  free  navigation  of  the  river.  Already 
our  statesmen  had  begun  to  realize  that  the 
empire  of  the  middle  west  was  largely  useless 
unless  there  were  an  open  and  safe  way  to  the 
Gulf.  It  was  with  this  in  view  that  a  Com- 
mission was  sent  to  France  to  negotiate. 

They  hoped  for  nothing  more,  and  had  no  in- 
structions beyond  the  securing  of  that  bit  of 
territory  which  would  place  the  control  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  hands  of  the 
United  States,  but  by  the  time  of  their  arrival 
in  France  certain  things  had  happened  which 
convinced  Napoleon  that  he  could  not  hope  to 


The  Field  of  Conquest  19 

hold  any  part  of  Louisiana;  indeed,  that  he 
must  hasten  to  be  rid  of  it  at  a  price,  if  he  did 
not  wish  to  lose  it  to  the  English  by  conquest. 
War  with  England  he  saw  to  be  inevitable. 
England  had  twenty  ships  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  whose  first  move  would  probably  be 
an  attack  upon  Louisiana  by  the  open  water- 
way of  the  Mississippi.  To  the  utter  astonish- 
ment of  the  commissioners  Napoleon  offered  to 
cede  the  whole  territory  to  the  United  States 
without  reservation. 

How  greatly  this  fretted  his  proud  spirit 
will  never  be  fully  known.  The  record  of  his 
statements  concerning  the  matter  show  that 
he  acted  with  the  utmost  reluctance.  *^I  re- 
nounce it,''  he  said,  *^with  the  greatest  regret, 
but  to  attempt  obstinately  to  retain  it  would  be 
absolute  folly.''  Not  because  he  loved  the 
United  States,  but  because  he  had  seized  upon 
something  too  great  for  him  to  hold,  he  made 
the  offer.  But  in  the  midst  of  his  bitter  disap- 
pointment he  experienced  a  savage  satisfaction. 
That  he  realized  better  than  any  other  the 
wider  significance  of  the  thing  which  he  was 
doing,  is  shown  by  his  utterance  after  the  sign- 
ing of  the  treaty:  ^^This  accession  of  territory 
strengthens  forever  the  power  of  the  United 
States.  I  have  just  given  to  England  a  mari- 
time rival  that  will  sooner  or  later  humble  her 
pride. ' ' 


20  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

James  Monroe  and  Eobert  Livingston  were 
men  who  could  not  fail  to  realize  the  value  of 
the  astounding  opportunity  which  was  offered 
them,  and  so  it  came  about  that  the  unexpected 
happened,  and  the  territory  which  we  had  not 
thought  to  possess  was  fairly  thrust  upon  us  at 
a  small  price. 

For  $15,000,000,  on  April  30,  1803,  France 
surrendered  a  province  bounded  on  the  north 
by  Canada,  on  the  south  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  extending  east  and  west  practically  from 
the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Eocky  Mountains. 
It  included  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Missouri, 
Iowa,  North  and  South  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kan- 
sas, Oklahoma  and  the  Indian  Territory,  the 
greater  part  of  Minnesota,  Montana  and 
Wyoming,  and  one-third  of  Colorado. 

Thus  at  the  end  of  twenty  years  came  the 
second  great  wave  of  territorial  expansion, 
which  once  more  doubled  the  possessions  of  the 
United  States,  planted  the  flag  of  a  nation  upon 
the  summits  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  gave 
us  for  the  first  time  free  access  to  the  great 
Gulf  southward. 

At  that  time  the  entire  population  west  of 
the  Alleghanies  was  less  than  half  a  million, 
and  all  the  white  men  dwelling  in  the  Louisiana 
province  did  not  number  50,000;  but  the  tide 
of  immigration  was  already  on  its  way,  and  the 
new  territory  offered  a  second  challenge  to  the 


The  Field  of  Conquest  21 

people  of  the  United  States  to  colonize  and 
Christianize — worthily  to  win  and  hold  the 
country  for  the  nation  and  for  God. 

Ill 

In  secretly  ceding  Louisiana  to  Napoleon, 
Spain  had  by  no  means  given  up  all  her  pos- 
„,  „    . ,        sessions  in  the  new  world.    Florida 

Th0  Spamsn 

Possessions  ^as  still  held  by  her,  together  with 
the  extensive  territory  which  was  called  New 
Spain,  and  which  had  always  been  her  strong- 
est centre  of  power  and  influence.  This  in- 
cluded the  present  republic  of  Mexico,  Texas, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  Nevada,  Cali- 
fornia and  parts  of  Colorado  and  Wyoming. 
By  treaty  and  purchase,  in  1819,  the  United 
States  became  possessed  of  the  Spanish  prov- 
ince of  ^^East  and  West  Florida, '^  which  em- 
braced the  present  state  of  that  name  together 
with  a  narrow  strip  of  land  running  along  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  as  far  as  the  Mississippi  Eiver. 
In  this  treaty  also  the  boundary  line  between 
the  United  States  and  Spain  was  carefully  des- 
ignated, and  each  of  the  contracting  parties 
solemnly  renounced  and  ceded  to  the  other  all 
its  claims  to  territory  lying  on  the  farther  side 
of  that  line.  Before  this  boundary  line  had 
been  surveyed,  however,  Mexico  had  revolted 
against  Spain,  and  had  set  up  an  independent 


22  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

government  in  the  year  1821,  taking  over  to 
herself  all  the  territory  previously  held  by 
Spain,  with  boundaries  as  defined  in  the  treaty 
of  1819  just  mentioned. 

One  approaches  the  consideration  of  our 
third  territorial  expansion  with  mingled  feel- 
ings. We  must  regret  that  it  was  coupled 
with  so  much  of  arrogance  and  aggression. 
The  causes  underlying  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  the  resulting  war  with  Mexico  which  fol- 
lowed, by  which  we  wrested  from  her  the  ces- 
sion of  1848,  are  so  involved  and  form  such  a 
tangled  skein  of  interlacing  motives  and  poli- 
cies, that  it  is  difficult  to  judge  them  fairly,  even 
from  the  vantage-point  of  years. 

Beyond  doubt  Mexico's  claim  to  inherit  the 
boundary  line  agreed  upon  with  Spain  was  a 
sound  one.  Beyond  doubt,  also,  the  revolt  of 
Texas  in  1836  and  its  setting  up  of  an  indepen- 
dent government  under  the  *4one  star''  flag 
was  encouraged  by  citizens  of  the  United 
States.  The  question  of  slavery  was  already 
weaving  its  dark  thread  into  all  the  policies — 
and  indeed  into  the  whole  fabric  of  our  national 
life.  A  careful  adjustment  was  sought  to  be 
maintained  by  the  admission  of  a  slave  state 
and  a  free  state  in  regular  alternation,  but  the 
growing  and  expanding  North,  with  its  large 
territory  and  its  boundless  resources,  was  a 
danger  with  which  the  upholders  of  slavery 


The  Field  of  Conquest  23 

were  already  being  compelled  to  reckon.  The 
only  territory  out  of  which  new  states  favor- 
able to  slavery  could  be  created  lay  beyond 
the  international  boundary  in  the  Mexican  pos- 
sessions. It  was  perhaps  only  natural  that 
Texas,  with  its  great  area  which  promised  to 
furnish  territory  for  at  least  five  states,  should 
be  coveted  by  the  South  as  a  part  of  the  Union. 

So  annexation  came,  by  which  we  broke  our 
solemn  pledge ;  an  army  was  marched  upon  the 
debatable  soil,  up  to  a  new  boundary  line  which 
we  had  ourselves  decreed,  but  which  Mexico 
had  never  accepted,  and  because  its  advance 
was  withstood  by  the  Mexicans,  war  was  de- 
clared— if  one  can  call  it  war.  Our  army  had 
its  own  way  with  the  Mexicans,  and  shortly 
planted  our  flag  over  their  capitol,  but  no  true 
lover  of  his  country  can  feel  great  pride  in 
the  achievement. 

Doubtless  it  was  better  for  the  territories 
concerned  that  they  should  come  under  the  rule 
of  the  American  republic.  Perhaps  it  is  even 
true  that  Mexico  was  better  off  without  these 
possessions,  and  could  devote  herself  more  di- 
rectly and  singly  to  the  solution  of  her  impor- 
tant problem  and  the  consolidation  of  the  con- 
flicting elements  out  of  which  she  was  to  engage 
in  the  seemingly  hopeless  task  of  forming  a 
republic.  But  after  all,  the  manner  of  the 
transfer  was  not  edifying. 


24         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Thus  for  a  third  time  that  which  doubtless 
was  inevitable  happened,  and  at  a  bound  we 
reached  the  Pacific.  From  sea  to  sea  extended 
American  dominion.  By  the  treaty  signed  in 
1848  600,000  square  miles  were  added  to  our 
continental  area  and  the  lands  of  the  great 
southwest,  including  golden  California,  passed 
into  our  possession.  These,  added  to  Texas, 
comprised  an  accession  as  large  as  Louisiana, 
and  larger  than  the  area  east  of  the  Mississippi 
which  fell  to  us  after  the  war  of  the  Eevolution. 

IV 

North  of  California  and  west  of  the  Eocky 
Mountains  lay  a  debatable  land  which  had 
_  ^  been  variously  claimed  by  Spanish, 

The  Oregon  '^  ^        x-  7 

Territory  Freuch    and    English  —  sometimes 

successively,  sometimes  simultaneously.  Be- 
yond question  the  first  explorers  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  were  Spanish.  Balboa,  Magellan,  Cor- 
tez  and  others  sailed  along  it  and  made  explora- 
tions upon  it.  France  also  may  have  penetrated 
it  from  the  interior,  in  the  person  of  some  of 
her  coureurs  de  hois,  the  wandering  trappers 
and  pioneers  whom  no  rivers  could  stop  nor 
mountains  daunt.  Whatever  claim  France  pos- 
sessed fell  to  us  by  the  purchase  of  the  Louisi- 
ana territory,  and  Spain's  cession  in  the  treaty 
of  1819  of  all  her  rights  north  of  the  great 


The  Field  of  Conquest  25 

boundary  line,  transferred  to  ns  any  claim  she 
might  possess.  It  was  with  England  that  the 
contest  finally  developed,  and  in  what  was 
known  as  the  Oregon  Country  the  last  stand 
against  British  aggression  was  successfully 
made. 

The  key  to  the  country  was  the  Columbia 
Eiver.  Practically  everything  to  the  north 
was  drained  by  it,  and  everything  to  the  south 
by  the  Snake  and  its  tributaries,  which  made  a 
confluence  with  the  Columbia  at  Walla  Walla. 
When  Captain  Eobert  Gray,  in  1792,  discovered 
the  obscure  mouth  of  this  great  stream,  past 
which  explorer  after  explorer  of  many  nations 
had  sailed  in  ignorance,  he  established  for  our 
country  the  best  claim  to  possession  which  any 
nation  could  allege.  President  Jefferson,  in 
1804,  followed  this  up  by  sending  the  famous 
exploring  expedition  under  Lewis  and  Clark, 
and  four  years  later  John  Jacob  Astor  for 
purposes  of  trade  made  the  first  settlement  at 
Astoria.  This  was  snatched  from  him  during 
the  War  of  1812,  but  afterward  restored  at  the 
insistence  of  his  government. 

For  years  thereafter  the  possession  of  this 
large  territory  was  in  debate,  the  United 
States  basing  its  claim  upon  five  chief  points : 
(1)  The  discovery  of  the  Columbia  by  Captain 
Gray;  (2)  the  exploration  of  Lewis  and  Clark; 
(3)  the  settlement  at  Astoria;  (4)  the  transfer 


26         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

of  titles  to  the  United  States  by  Spain  and 
France;  (5)  on  the  ground  of  contiguity  the 
United  States  had  a  stronger  right  to  these 
territories  than  could  be  advanced  by  any  other 
power.* 

It  was  not  until  1846  that  the  question  was 
settled,  when  the  49th  parallel  of  latitude  be- 
came the  boundary,  England  relinquishing  her 
claim  to  the  country  south  of  it  and  we  relin- 
quishing our  claim  to  the  territory  west  of 
the  Eocky  Mountains  between  parallels  49°  and 
54°  40'. 

With  this  final  winning  of  the  Oregon  ter- 
ritory there  is  bound  up  a  thrilling  missionary 
story.  Space  does  not  permit  its  telling  here 
further  than  in  the  briefest  outline. 

It  was  in  1832  that  four  Indians  of  the  Nez 
Perces,  an  Oregon  tribe,  suddenly  appeared  in 
St.  Louis,  having  journeyed  for  months  that 
they  might  ask  for  the  white  man's  Book  which 
showed  the  trail  to  the  Happy  Hunting 
Grounds.  Through  the  exploring  party  of  Lewis 
and  Clark  they  must  have  heard  of,  and  doubt- 
less seen,  the  Bible.  General  Clark  was  at  that 
time  Indian  Agent,  with  headquarters  in  St. 
Louis.  He  received  his  old  friends  cordially, 
but  could  do  nothing  for  them.  No  Bible  in 
their  language  existed,  and  no  missionary  was 

*  Mowry :  The  Territorial  Growth  of  the  United  States, 
page  148. 


The  Field  of  Conquest  27 

at  hand  to  return  with  them  and  teach  them, 
so  they  went  back  disappointed. 

But  the  story  of  their  coming  travelled  over 
the  land,  and  Christian  men  felt  the  call  to 
offer  themselves  in  response  to  this  pathetic 
appeal.  Both  the  Methodists  and  the  Presby- 
terians sent  out  missionaries,  prominent  among 
the  latter  being  Marcus  Whitman,  M.D.  He  it 
was  who  took  the  first  wagon  across  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  in  it  Mrs.  Whitman  and  the 
wife  of  his  comrade  in  the  missionary  under- 
taking, the  Rev.  Mr.  Spalding.  Arrived  in  Ore- 
gon, Dr.  Whitman  found  the  territory  altogether 
under  the  domination  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Fur 
Co.  It  was  to  their  advantage  to  keep  it  a  wil- 
derness. Vast  profits  were  being  made,  and 
the  company  not  only  controlled  the  situation 
in  Oregon,  but  also  possessed  the  string  of  forts 
which  formed  the  only  link  between  it  and  the 
distant  seat  of  government  and  civilization. 
Everything  which  could  be  done  without  pro- 
voking retaliation  was  done  to  prevent  the  in- 
coming of  immigrants  and  the  education  of  the 
Indians.  The  settlement  of  the  country  and 
the  turning  of  its  natives  to  agriculture  meant 
death  to  the  company  by  the  destruction  of 
its  profits,  and  while  the  missionaries  were  out- 
wardly welcomed  the  things  for  which  they 
stood  were  covertly  opposed. 

Yet  the  way  had  been  opened,  and  the  little 


28         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

trickle  of  immigration  which  was  soon  to  swell 
to  a  resistless  flood  had  begun.  The  English 
company  foresaw  the  probable  result  and 
planned  to  bring  in  settlers  from  Canada  to 
outnumber  the  Americans,  and  so  wrest  the 
country  from  them.  While  visiting  one  of  their 
forts  to  minister  to  their  sick,  Whitman  heard 
their  boasts  to  this  effect.  This  confirmed  liim 
in  a  course  of  action  already  determined  upon. 
The  same  hour  he  rode  back  to  his  mission  and 
the  next  day  set  out  on  his  marvellous  ride 
across  the  continent — an  exploit  in  itself. 

It  was  late  in  the  fall  of  1842  that  he  started, 
with  only  one  companion,  who  midway  of  the 
journey  was  compelled  to  drop  behind.  Whit- 
man pushed  on  through  the  bitter  winter  across 
the  mountains  and  reached  St.  Louis,  having 
endured  untold  hardships  and  having  been 
again  and  again  on  the  verge  of  disaster  and 
death. 

Hearing  that  a  treaty  was  being  negotiated 
with  England  in  which  the  Oregon  boundary 
question  would  probably  be  included,  he  paused 
in  St.  Louis  only  long  enough  to  arrange  with 
others  for  the  gathering  of  a  band  of  colonists 
whom  he  promised  to  lead  the  following  sum- 
mer across  the  mountains  to  Oregon.  Then  he 
pushed  on  to  Washing-ton  and  made  his  repre- 
sentations to  the  President  and  to  Daniel 
Webster,  the  Secretary  of  State.    He  outlined 


The  Field  of  Conquest  29 

the  situation  as  he  understood  it,  and  told  them 
of  the  dangers  which  threatened  American 
sovereignty. 

How  far  the  statements  of  Dr.  Whitman  in- 
fluenced the  final  decision  which  gave  to  us  the 
Oregon  country  can  never  be  known,  but  the 
sudden  appearance  of  this  bronzed  and  fur- 
clad  pioneer,  bearing  the  marks  of  his  tre- 
mendous journey,  speaking  briefly  and  to  the 
point,  urging  everywhere  the  importance  of 
Oregon  and  the  certainty  of  its  great  future, 
left  an  impress  upon  the  capital  which  has  come 
down  in  contemporary  history. 

But  Whitman  was  not  the  man  to  place  his 
whole  reliance  upon  the  action  of  diplomatists ; 
he  also  took  a  hand  in  the  affair,  playing  the 
game  in  his  own  way.  Back  to  the  west  he 
hastened,  finding  there  more  than  eight  hun- 
dred persons  ready  to  take  up  their  journey  to 
Oregon.  These,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  and 
dire  prophecies  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  officials,  he 
led  safely  across  the  mountains  and  down  into 
the  plains  of  the  new  land,  to  form  the  nucleus 
of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  to-day  in- 
habit it;  and  Oregon  was  saved  to  the  United 
States. 

Probably  it  was  no  unexpected  thing  to 
Whitman  when, — possibly  through  the  machina- 
tions of  his  unavowed  enemy,  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company, — he  and  all  his  were  massacred 


30  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

by  the  Indians  in  1847.  Again  and  again  he 
had  cast  his  life  into  the  hazard  in  the  endeavor 
to  save  this  great  country  to  the  United  States, 
and  although  no  eye-witness  has  told  of  his 
sharp  and  sudden  end,  he  surely  met  it  bravely 
and  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  From  his  death 
followed  the  victory  which  he  sought,  and 
his  blood  sealed  the  future  of  the  land  for 
which  he  strove.  Scarcely  in  history  has  there 
been  a  more  conspicuous  example  of  the  mis- 
sionary as  the  pioneer  of  civilization  and  the 
benefactor  of  his  nation. 

By  this  fourth  and  last*  continental  expan- 
sion 300,000  square  miles  were  added  to  the 
previous  territory  of  the  nation.  Idaho,  Ore- 
gon, Washington  and  parts  of  Montana  and 
Wyoming  came  under  the  flag,  and  Puget 
Sound,  with  all  that  it  means  as  a  port  of  trade 
with  the  Orient  and  Alaska,  was  secured  to  the 
United  States. 

Thus  from  coast  to  coast  and  from  the  Great 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf  there  stretched,  far  and  fair, 
the  home  of  the  American  Eepublic.  Within 
a  little  more  than  sixty  years, — from  being  shut 
up  between  the  barriers  of  the  Atlantic  and  the 

*The  purchase  of  Alaska  was,  of  course,  a  fifth  expansion 
on  this  continent,  but  differed  from  the  first  four  in  not  deal- 
ing with  contiguous  territory;  in  effect  it  lies  across  the  sea. 
The  circumstances  of  its  acquisition  appear   in  Chapter  VI. 


The  Field  of  Conquest  31 

Allegli|nies,  tied  to  a  single  sea-coast  and  at 
the  mercy  of  powerful  neighbors  on  every 
hand, — she  had,  by  four  astonishing  advances, 
carried  her  dominion  literally  to  the  end  of  the 
earth.  Only  the  wide  sea  had  stopped  her 
progress.*  The  boast  contained  in  the  old  coup- 
let had  been  made  good: 

*'No  pent-up  Utica  contracts  our  powers, 
But  the  whole  boundless  continent  is  ours.'' 


*  Yet,  as  we  know,  the  progress  of  our  nation  did  not  stop 
when  she  had  traversed  the  continent  and  reached  the  great 
sea.  In  these  latter  days  she  has  set  her  flag  among  its 
islands.  Here,  again,  she  was  not  seeking  conquest.  Hawaii 
knocked  at  our  doors  and  was  admitted  into  the  family.  A 
generous  interference  in  behalf  of  a  defenceless  and  oppressed 
people,  brought  to  us,  most  unexpectedly,  Porto  Rico  and  the 
Philippines.  To  all  these,  the  Church,  following  her  patriotic 
duty,  has  gone  that  she  may  aid  the  state  in  making  Chris- 
tian citizens.  Yet  these  lie  beyond  the  scope  of  our  volume; 
though  they  stand  as  signs  of  a  world-mission  laid  upon  our 
nation,  in  which,  pray  God,  she  may  show  herself  generous 
and  faithful! 


n 

THE  GATHERING  OF  THE  FOECES 

THE  title  of  tliis  book  is  not  a  declaration 
but  a  challenge.  It  is  an  inspiration,  an 
ideal — ^please  God,  a  prophecy.  This 
continent  has  not  yet  been  conquered  for 
Christ.  Even  these  United  States  are  not 
wholly  and  completely  His.  The  efforts 
of  aU  Christian  forces  combined  have  not 
achieved  that  result.  The  trumpet  still  sounds 
,    ,       the  assembly  and  the  charge,  and  the 

Conquest  not  "^  .    . 

Complete  couflict  is  real  and  critical. 

Our  own  share  in  the  battle  has  not  been  pre- 
eminent, nor  have  our  victories  been  over- 
whelming. Our  zeal  and  self-sacrifice  have  not 
been  great.  Christians  who  boasted  no  ancient 
lineage  and  who  found  their  inspiration  only 
in  a  personal  loyalty  to  Christ,  have  again 
and  again  put  us  to  shame.  Vast  tracts  of  our 
country  we  have  left  for  others  to  evangelize, 
and  where  we  did  go  our  skirmish-line  was  often 
pitifully  thin,  with  no  reserves  in  sight  and  only 
the  poorest  of  equipment.  Yet  in  spite  of  all 
these  things  the  mark  which  we  have  left  upon 

32 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  33 

the  country  is  an  honorable  one.  We  have  had 
our  great  leaders,  we  have  faced  our  great 
moments,  and  have  seen  some  great  successes. 

To-day  this  Mstoric  Church,  which  holds  her 
commission  through  England  and  France,  and 
the  beloved  disciple  John,*  from  our  Lord  Him- 
self, is  exercising  an  influence  and  is  being 
called  to  a  leadership  far  in  excess  of  anything 
to  which  our  numbers  or  successes  entitle  us. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  well  to  review 
the  past,  both  for  admonition  and  encourage- 
ment ;  to  see  from  what  small  beginnings  our  ac- 
complishments have  resulted,  and  to  learn  how 
wide  is  still  the  gulf  between  these  achieve- 
ments and  the  work  which  is  ours  to  do — if  we 
will. 

Not  forgetful  then,  nor  unappreciative,  of  the 
great  contributions  which  other  Christian 
bodies  have  made  to  the  conquest  of  the  con- 
tinent, and  thankful  that  where  we  did  not  or 
could  not  go  they  went  before  and  hewed  out 
a  path  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Eighteousness,  we  must  nevertheless  confine 
our  attention  to  the  missionary  progress  of  our 
own  Communion. 

*  The  succession  of  the  English  Church  may  be  traced  not 
only  through  the  first  Roman  missionaries,  but  also  through 
the  ancient  Celtic  and  early  British  Church,  which  derived 
their  Orders  from  Gaul,  which  in  turn  received  the  Episcopate 
from  Ephesus  in  Asia  Minor,  one  of  the  Seven  Churches  men- 
tioned by  the  Apostle  St.  John. 


34         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

In  the  previous  chapter  we  have  seen  how, 
in  four  great  enlargements,  at  different  periods 
The  Civil  and  the  ^^  ^^^r  Mstory,  the  American  Eepuh- 
spirituai  Conquest  j'^  bccamo  posscsscd  of  her  wide  do- 
main. These  were,  successively,  (1)  The  ac- 
quisition of  the  Northwest  Territory  in  1783 
by  the  treaty  which  ended  the  Eevolutionary 
War;  (2)  the  purchase  from  Napoleon  of  the 
Louisiana  Territory  in  1803;  (3)  the  cession  by 
Mexico  of  the  Spanish  country  in  1848;  and 
(4)  the  treaty  with  England  in  1846  which  es- 
tablished the  international  boundary  and 
acknowledged  our  title  to  the  Oregon  territory. 

Along  the  same  lines,  and  curiously  corre- 
sponding with  this  civil  conquest  of  the  conti- 
nent, has  gone  the  religious  conquest.  Each 
new  period  of  missionary  enlargement  has 
meant  the  establishment  of  the  Church,  suc- 
cessively, in  these  great  divisions  of  the  land. 
We  shall  therefore  be  treading  the  path  which 
the  nation  has  trod  as  we  attempt  to  follow  the 
Church  through  the  history  of  her  progress,  and 
we  shall  find  our  attention  directed  successively 
to  each  of  these  four  territorial  divisions. 


The  first  step  in  the  conquest  was  made  on 
Jamestown  Island,  when  under  the  old  sail 
Our  First  strctchcd  between  four  trees  the  god- 

Landing  Party     j^  chaplain,  Mastor  Eobert  Hunt,  on 


^»rCfei  t^-» 


TOWER  OF  THE  OLD  CHURCH  ON  JAMESTOWN  ISLAND 

The  site  of  our  first  altar  in  America 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  35 

that  seventeenth  day  of  May,  1607,  voiced  the 
thanksgiving  of  the  newly  landed  handful  of 
colonists  in  the  familiar  phrases  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer.  The  first  permanent  altar 
was  the  grain  of  mustard  seed  from  which  the 
life  of  the  Church  spread.  Wherever  the  sons 
of  the  Church  of  England  went  the  words  of  her 
liturgy  were  heard,  and  her  influence  for  right- 
eousness was  felt. 

Yet  under  what  almost  inconceivable  diffi- 
culties! The  affairs  of  the  Church  had  been 
Difficulties  administered  from  across  the   sea. 

Encountered        j^^^q   |.j^g   Church  of  England,   but 

much  more  hopelessly,  she  was  at  the  mercy  of 
the  state.  A  plan  for  providing  a  bishop  for 
her  governance,  and  so  completing  the  three- 
fold order,  had  before  the  Eevolution  never 
been  seriously  undertaken  even  by  the  colonies 
themselves,— still  less  by  the  people  of  Eng- 
land. Confirmation  had  of  necessity  fallen  into 
disuse.  The  affairs  of  the  Church  were  admin- 
istered through  commissaries  who  represented 
the  distant  and  somewhat  shadowy  over-lord- 
ship of  the  Bishop  of  London.  Clergy  there 
could  be  none,  except  such  as  took  the  long  and 
dangerous  voyage  across  the  ocean,  made  a 
more  or  less  prolonged  stay  in  England  at  their 
own  charges,  and  returned  as  best  they  might. 
The  only  alternative  was  to  bring  over  from 
England  men  already  ordained,  too  many  of 


36         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

whom  proved  to  be  lacking  in  scholarship, 
ability,  or  certain  fundamental  principles  of 
manners  and  morals  even  more  important. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  a  more 
desperate  situation  than  that  of  the  Episcopal 
Misunderstand.  Church  at  tho  closo  of  the  Rcvolu- 
ings  Without  ^j^Qjj^  jjgj.  members  were  a  seem- 
ingly hopeless  little  band  compared  with  the 
Puritan  hosts  about  her.  She  was  regarded, — 
to  use  the  quaint  phrase  of  the  late  Bishop  Wil- 
liams of  Connecticut, — as  ^^a  piece  of  heavy 
baggage  which  the  British  had  left  behind 
them  when  they  evacuated  New  York  and  Bos- 
ton.'* No  religious  organization,  with  the  pos- 
sible exception  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  could 
have  been  more  unwelcome  to  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  people,  or  more  severely  condemned  by 
the  popular  judgment  of  the  period.  She  was 
the  offspring  of  a  State  Church,  and  therefore 
to  be  suspected,  however  much  she  might  pro- 
test her  separation  from  politics.  The  very 
features  which  constitute  her  abiding  value  and 
influence  were  unwelcome,  if  not  abhorred.  A 
bishop  smacked  of  courts  and  crowns,  of  stately 
carriages  and  aristocratic  pomp.  No  other  kind 
could  be  imagined  by  the  sturdy  Puritans. 
Her  liturgical  worship  was  counted  as  deadly 
formalism  or  abominable  hypocrisy,  and  all 
the  order,  beauty  and  glory  of  the  Christian 
Year, — of  Feast  and  Fast  and  Sacrament,  were 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  37] 

but  so  many  rags  of  Popery ;  from  all  of  which, 
together  with  the  Bishop  of  Eome,  the  stout 
Protestants  of  the  day  prayed  that  they  might 
be  delivered. 

Nor  was  the  fault  outside  the  Church  alone. 

Some  things  which  her  opponents  alleged  were 

true.     There  was  no  vigorous  type 

W6&&I1688 

Within  -  of  earnest  spirituality.  Without 
doubt  much  formalism  prevailed.  Few  there 
were  who  had  any  real  conception  of  the 
Church's  Catholic  heritage,  and  the  trials  of 
the  Revolution  had  already  sapped  the  vitality 
and  loosened  the  bonds  of  such  union  as  had 
previously  existed. 

With  such  a  past  behind  them  and  such  a 
state  of  feeling  around  them,  the  little  handful 
The  Convention  ^^  Churchmcn  met  in  Philadelphia 
•^™  for  the  General  Convention  of  1789. 

One  great  thing  at  least  had  been  gained. 
Bishop  Seabury,  after  a  long  and  fruitless  quest 
of  the  episcopate  in  England,  had  received  it 
at  last  from  the  non-juring  bishops  of  Scotland* 

*  Bishop  Seabury  could  not  receive  consecration  from  the 
English  bishops,  because  they  were  required  in  all  cases  to 
exact  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  King  of  England.  The 
Scotch  Episcopate  was  under  no  such  obligation.  It  repre- 
sented those  bishops  called  *' non-jurors''  because  they  felt 
bound  to  respect  their  oath  of  allegiance  to  James  II  and 
the  House  of  Stuart.  See  Tiffany:  American  Church  His- 
tory Series,  Vol.  VII,  page  318. 


38         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

in  1784.  Bishops  White  and  Provoost,  after 
encountering  almost  equal  difficulties,  largely 
due  to  the  character  of  the  proposed  prayer 
book  put  forth  by  American  churchmen,  had 
been  consecrated  at  Lambeth  Palace,  in  1787. 
The  episcopate,  so  long  desired,  was  thus  se- 
cured to  the  American  Church.  The  three  bish- 
ops necessary  to  a  complete  and  regular  conse- 
cration were  on  American  soil. 

Aside  from  this  the  outlook  was  discourag- 
ing indeed.  Two  bishops,  twenty  clergymen 
and  sixteen  laymen  constituted  this  General 
Convention — a  number  no  greater  than  would 
now  be  gathered  by  almost  any  missionary 
jurisdiction  at  its  annual  convocation.  But  ad- 
mirable indeed  was  the  work  done  by  this  hand- 
ful of  men.  They  ratified  the  Prayer  Book, 
adopted  the  Constitution,  and  set  the  Church 
before  the  people  of  the  land  with  reiterated 
claims  to  the  possession  of  ancient  faith  and 
apostolic  order.  Yet  what  a  hopeless  task  it 
seemed ! 

II 

We  pass  over  twenty-two  years,  and  in  1811 
find  the  Church  again  assembled  in  General 
The  Lean  l  Conveutiou.  The  years  had  brought 
^"'*  her     varying     fortune — everything, 

one  might  think,  except  good  fortune.  At 
times  it  had  almost   seemed  as  though  God 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  39 

would  indeed  remove  her  candlestick  out  of 
its  place,  and  that  she  would  cease  to  exist  as 
a  national  Church.  The  two  bishops,  twenty 
clergy  and  sixteen  laymen  of  the  Convention 
of  1789  had  in  1811  become  two  bishops,  twenty- 
five  clergy  and  twenty-two  laymen — an  increase 
in  twenty-two  years  of  no  bishops,  five  clergy 
and  six  laymen!* 

To  the  modern  Churchman  the  conditions 
under  which  the  Church  through  these  years 
continued  to  exist  are  almost  unthinkable. 
Plainly  she  did  not  understand  her  own  char- 
acter or  mission.  Even  the  episcopate,  sought 
and  obtained  with  such  great  labor,  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  valued  for  its  really  perma- 
nent and  divine  characteristics.  Great  con- 
firmation classes  were  at  first  recorded, — 250 
at  one  time  by  Bishop  Seabury, — over  300  in 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  by  Bishop  Pro- 
voost.  But  the  novelty  of  the  rite  soon  passed 
away.  Bishop  White,  who  was  probably  never 
confirmed  himself,t  seems  to  have  deemed  con- 
firmation scarcely  essential  for  his  people.  He 
rarely  went  beyond  Philadelphia  and  the 
nearby  towns.  During  twenty  years  his  visita- 
tions averaged  six  per  annum.     Bishop  Mad- 

*  These  figures  show  the  increase  in  the  membership  of  the 
General  Convention,  and  only  indirectly  indicate  the  growth 
of  the  Church  as  a  whole. 

t  See  McConnell :  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  page 
282. 


40         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

ison  of  Virginia,  after  his  first  visita- 
tion of  his  diocese,  considered  his  duties  as 
president  of  William  and  Mary  College  the 
more  important,  while  the  first  Bishop  of 
South  Carolina  never  confirmed  at  all.*  Bishop 
Provoost  resigned  in  1801  and  busied  himself 
for  ten  years  with  a  new  translation  of  Tasso 
and  the  study  of  botany,  during  which  time  it 
is  said  that  he  utterly  neglected  the  services  of 
the  Church  and  did  not  receive  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. Only  one  ordination  is  recorded  in 
Virginia  during  this  entire  period,  and  it  is  to 
be  feared  that  the  man  was  unworthy  of  it. 

Such  was  the  period  of  the  great  stagnation, 
— or  may  we  not  better  call  it  the  dormancy  of 
the  mustard  seed?  Who  could  then 
sta'gnatfon  foresco  the  things  which  God  had  in 
store  for  His  Church?  Who  can  wonder  at  the 
despair  which  filled  the  minds  of  many,  so  that 
even  a  bishop  could  say  that  he  doubted 
whether  Episcopacy  in  America  would  not  die 
with  him?  These  things  make  more  intelligible 
the  astounding  story  told  concerning  Chief  Jus- 
tice Marshall, — himself  a  faithful  and  life-long 
Churchman, — who  when  approached  for  a  gift 

*  South  Carolina  had  entered  the  Federal  Church  on  con- 
dition that  no  bishop  be  sent  to  her.  Three  years  later  she 
came  to  a  better  mind  and  elected  the  Rev.  Dr.  Eobert  Smith, 
who  was  consecrated  in  1795  and  died  in  1801.  No  successor 
was  chosen  for  eleven  years.  See  Perry^  Vol.  II,  page  189, 
note. 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  41 

toward  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Alexandria 
made  the  gift  indeed,  like  a  loyal  son  of  the 
Church,  hut  at  the  same  time  declared  that  he 
doubted  whether  he  were  not  doing  a  grave 
wrong  in  encouraging  any  young  man  to  enter 
the  ministry  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  which  in 
his  judgment  was  destined  to  die  out  within  a 
generation. 

Thus  begins  the  history  of  the  Church  which 
first  secured  in  America  the  Apostolic  ministry 
in  its  three-fold  order.*  Losing  on  the  one  hand 
thousands  of  her  members  to  Methodism,  and 
on  the  other  missing  a  chance  to  make  lasting 
gains  among  the  immigrant  Lutherans,  the 
Church  seemed  to  slumber  on,  unconscious  of 
her  heritage  and  her  calling. 

It  would  be  unjust,  however,  to  give  the  im- 
pression that  this  period  contributed  nothing 
A  Period  of  to  the  Church's  growth.  A  really 
Adaptation  important  development  was   going 

on.  We  must  remember  that  everything,  both 
in  Church  and  State,  was  experimental.  The 
republic  was   passing  through  the   throes   of 

*  John  Carroll,  Eoman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Baltimore,  was 
not  consecrated  until  1790.  At  that  date  not  only  Seabury 
but  Bishops  White  and  Provoost  had  already  been  conse- 
crated and  were  established  in  sees.  They  had  received  their 
Orders  with  entire  regularity  at  the  hands  of  three  bishops. 
Archbishop  Carroll,  acting  alone,  consecrated  other  bishops. 
Through  him  the  Roman  Catholic  Orders  in  this  country  have 
been  derived. 


42  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

adaptation  and  learning  how  rightly  to  use  lib- 
erty under  law.  Even  greater  was  the  difficulty 
which  the  Church  faced.  In  all  English  history 
there  had  been  no  such  tiling  as  lay  representa- 
tion in  ecclesiastical  bodies — a  principle  fun- 
damentally embedded  in  the  new  Constitution. 
It  was  an  idea  almost  as  revolutionary  in  char- 
acter as  that  of  a  bishop  who  did  not  live  in  a 
palace  and  wear  a  wig!  Then,  too,  the  clergy 
had  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  known 
nothing  but  a  shadow  of  episcopal  oversight. 
The  whole  question  of  the  constitutional  rela- 
tions of  bishops,  clergy  and  laity  with  one  an- 
other and  with  the  general  Church,  had  to  be 
worked  out  and  adjusted.  This  was  done  fairly 
well  during  these  first  twenty-two  years.  The 
structural  development  was  going  on,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  period  the  general  plan  of  the 
Church's  law  and  order  was  pretty  well  estab- 
lished. 

The  Church  was  finding  herself.  She  was 
realizing  her  unity.  This  sense  of  unity  took 
hold  and  flowered  in  a  truer  conception  of  the 
episcopate.  The  bishop  of  wigs  and  carriages, 
with  much  of  the  aristocrat  and  a  little  tinge  of 
*^my  lordship" — the  prevailing  English  type  of 
that  day — could  not  be  successfully  reproduced 
in  America.  More  than  ever,  having  at  last 
obtained  the  episcopate,  did  the  Church  realize 
how  essential  it  was  to  her  unity  and  success; 


RT.  REV.   JOHN  HENRY  HOBART^  D.D. 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  43 

but  more  than  ever  also  was  she  beginning  to 
see  that  an  adaptation  was  needed,  and  that  an 
American  type  of  bishop— one  who  should  be 
before  all  else  a  missionary— must  be  de- 
veloped. 

Thus  did  the  Church,  during  this  dark 
period  of  her  history,  develop  her  organization 
for  conquest  and  readjust  her  ideals  of  leader- 
ship. She  emerged  with  a  united  front  and  a 
clearer  vision;  which  was,  perhaps,  as  much 
as  could  be  expected  under  the  circumstances. 

Ill 

In  His  good  time  God  raised  up  three  men 
— and  they  raised  up  the  Church.    Hobart  in 
New  York,  Griswold  in  New  Eng- 
RaueTup  land,  and  Moore  in  Virginia  were, 

under  God,  the  three  personalities  which  ush- 
ered in  for  the  Church  the  period  of  internal 
growth. 

In  1811  Bishop  Moore,  the  coadjutor  of  New 
York,  was  stricken  with  paralysis.  Bishop  Pro- 
voost  had  resigned  his  work  ten  years  before 
and  was  devoting  himself  to  the  study  of  botany 
and  the  classics.  The  diocese  of  New  York 
therefore  proceeded  to  elect  an  assistant 
bishop,  and  the  choice  fell  upon  John  Henry 
Hobart,  the  leading  young  High  Churchman  of 
his  day.    The  difficulties  surrounding  his  con- 


44         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

secration,  which  for  a  time  seemed  insuperahle, 
were  finally  overcome,  though  in  this  transition 
from  the  old  order  to  the  new  it  is  not  generally 
realized  by  how  narrow  a  margin  the  Church 
escaped  the  necessity  of  seeking  once  more  her 
Orders  from  abroad. 

When  Hobart  was  consecrated*  there  were 
only  six  bishops  in  the  nation;  three  were  nec- 
essary for  regular  consecration.  Bishop  Moore 
was  incapacitated  by  paralysis;  Bishop  Clag- 
gett  of  Maryland  fell  ill  on  his  way  north; 
Bishop  Madison  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to 
leave  his  college  duties ;  White  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Jarvis  of  Connecticut  were  alone  avail- 
able, unless  perchance  Bishop  Provoost  would 
consent  to  join  in  the  consecration.  Happily  he 
did  leave  his  lexicons  and  herbariums  long 
enough  to  come  to  Trinity  Church  for  the  ser- 
vice, though  even  there  the  consecration  was 
halted  while  the  three  bishops  settled  the  ques- 
tion propounded  by  him  as  to  whether  it  were 
seemly  to  proceed  unless  all  three  wore  wigs! 
The  adroitness  of  Bishop  White,  who  called  to 
mind  a  portrait  of  Archbishop  Tillotson  painted 
without  his  wig,  at  last  reconciled  Bishop  Pro- 

*  Bishop  Griswold  also  received  consecration  at  the  same 
time  and  place.  For  a  suggestive  treatise  on  the  historical 
features  of  the  incident  see  a  sermon  preached  in  Trinity 
Church,  New  York,  by  Bishop  Kinsman  on  the  one-hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  consecration,  published  in  The  Living 
Church,  June  10,  1911. 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  45 

voost  to  appear  in  his  own  in  the  same  chancel 
with  two  men  who  were  wigless ! 

But  this  was  the  end  of  such  trivialities. 
The  men  who,  one  after  another,  were  now 
called  to  leadership  in  the  Church,  were  bishops 
of  a  new  sort. 

Bishop    Hobart    set    himself    earnestly    to 

strengthen  ^^the  things  which  remained"  in  the 

diocese  of  New  York,  which  sadly 

Bishop  Hobart  -,     -.  .  -,.  ^  ^  rn, 

needed  a  guidmg  hand.  The  care- 
lessness of  Bishop  Provoost  and  the  feeble 
health  of  Bishop  Moore  had  wrought  much  dis- 
aster to  the  Church.  It  was  a  time  of  weak 
faith,  lax  morals  and  rampant  infidelity,  and 
the  Church  suffered  sadly. 

From  the  beginning  the  new  bishop  took  a 
prominent  place  in  the  Church's  life.  He  was 
a  moral  and  intellectual  power.  He  loved  the 
Church,  he  loved  books,  and  he  loved  the  souls 
of  men.  He  was,  above  all  things,  a  man  of 
action,  exhorting,  organizing,  rebuking,  zealous 
for  the  honor  of  the  Church  and  the  salvation 
of  mankind.  He  was  also  a  missionary, 
and  it  was  he  who  sent  the  Gospel  to  the  Oneida 
Indians  in  the  central  part  of  the  state.  His 
life  flamed  like  a  fire  in  the  midst  of  the  preva- 
lent laxity  and  inertia,  and  it  was  a  fire  which 
sometimes  scorched.  Doubtless  he  was  not  al- 
ways wise,  for  he  had  the  defects  of  his  virtues. 


46         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

**Give  me  a  little  zealous  imprudence,'*  was 
one  of  his  favorite  sayings.  He  went  about  his 
great  diocese  with  energy  and  consecration  of 
life;  he  stimulated  and  inspired  everywhere. 
Called  to  the  administration  of  the  greatest  dio- 
cese in  the  American  Church,  for  nineteen  years 
he  exemplified  the  words  of  the  Psalmist;  for 
*^he  fed  them  with  a  faithful  and  true  heart,  and 
ruled  them  prudently  with  all  his  power.''  It 
was  while  he  was  on  a  missionary  visitation 
in  a  remote  part  of  his  diocese  that  the  sum- 
mons came  which  called  him  home — a  bishop 
than  whom  few  have  left  a  deeper  impress  upon 
their  age,  and  a  nobler  memory  of  brave  deeds 
well  done.* 

For  the  Eastern  Diocese,  too — as  New  Eng- 
land, with  the  exception  of  Connecticut,  was  then 
called — at  the  same  time  with  Hobart,  Alex- 
ander Viets  Griswold  was  advanced 
Bishop  Griswold    ^^  ^^^  episcopate.    He  rekindled  the 

flame  of  spiritual  life  which  in  many  places  had 
burned  almost  to  ashes.  Like  Hobart  in  New 
York  he  seemed  almost  compelled  to  create  the 

*  Hobart  College,  Geneva,  the  General  Theological  Seminary 
and  the  New  York  Bible  and  Common  Prayer  Book  Society 
owe  their  beginning  to  Bishop  Hobart.  He  published  the  first 
religious  periodical,  edited  a  Family  Bible,  produced  devo- 
tional manuals  and  organized  and  stimulated  Sunday  School 
work — a  comparatively  new  thing  in  that  day.  He  was  also 
most  active  in  Church  defence,  originating  the  phrase  which 
has  been  so  frequently  used  to  define  the  Church's  position, 
"Evangelic  truth  and  Apostolic  order." 


RT.   REV.  ALEXANDER  V.  GRISWOLD,   D.D. 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  47 

Church  anew,  but  his  intense  consecration  and 
simple  piety,  combined  with  a  faithfulness 
most  conspicuous,  produced  their  inevitable  ef- 
fect. Everywhere  he  journeyed,  prayed  and 
preached,  and  by  sheer  force  of  his  own  real 
goodness  and  loving  self-sacrifice  reawakened 
personal  religion  in  the  lives  of  thousands 
throughout  the  thirty-two  years  during  which 
it  was  granted  him  to  serve  in  the  episcopate. 

In  Virginia,  too,  conditions  were  no  better. 
In  a  single  generation  the  power  of  the  Church 
had  been  swept  away.  The  grants  of  the  Eng- 
lish crown  were,  of  course,  taken  from  her,  and 
it  was  not  strange  that  she  became  a  mark  for 
plunder.  Glebes  and  church  buildings  were 
sold  for  a  song,  and  the  proceeds — which  were 
to  be  used  ^'for  any  public  purpose  not  re- 
ligious''— were  sometimes  embezzled  by  the 
sheriff's  officers.  Guzzling  planters  drank  from 
chalices  and  passed  cheese  on  Communion 
patens.  A  marble  font  became  a  horse-trough. 
Communion  plate,  the  gift  of  good  Queen  Anne, 
adorned  the  sideboards  of  officers  of  the  state. 
Discouraged  and  without  support,  the  clergy 
in  large  numbers  laid  down  their  spiritual  call- 
ings. At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  they  num- 
bered ninety;  at  its  close  they  were  twenty- 
eight.  At  the  Convention  of  1812  only  thir- 
teen could  be  gathered.* 

*  See  McConnell :  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  p.  287. 


48         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

It  was  even  worse  in  1814  when  Richard 

Channing  Moore  was  consecrated  Bishop   of 

Virginia.     He  found  in  his  diocese 

Bishop  Hooro  in  j^  •  i  \iti  i 

only  live  active  clergy.  When  he 
died,  after  an  episcopate  of  twenty-seven  years, 
he  left  one  hundred  earnest  clergy  serving 
one  hundred  and  seventy  congregations.  Such 
was  the  transformation  wrought  by  this  man 
of  God  at  a  crisis  in  the  Church's  life. 

These  three  bishops — Hobart,  Griswold  and 
Moore — were  types  of  the  new  order.  Other 
The  Period  of  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  samo  Spirit  carried  on 
Internal  Growth    ^^iQ    work    iu    othcr    placcs.     The 

Church  expanded  and  prospered;  churches 
were  built;  missions  established;  state  after 
state  elected  its  bishop,  until,  in  1835,  twenty- 
four  years  after  the  consecration  of  Hobart  and 
Griswold,  the  bishops  in  General  Convention 
numbered  fourteen  instead  of  two ;  the  clerical 
deputies  had  become  sixty-nine  instead  of 
twenty-five;  and  the  laymen  fifty-one  instead 
of  twenty-two.  The  nine  states  represented 
had  increased  to  twenty-one. 

IV 

This  General  Convention  of  1835  which  met 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  was — with  the  pos- 
Thecauto  ^iblc  exccptiou  of  the  primary  Con- 
Go  Forward        yentiou  iu  1789— the  most  momen- 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  49 

tons  gathering  which  the  Church  has  ever 
known,  and  it  may  justly  be  regarded  as  mark- 
ing a  supreme  epoch  in  her  history.  It  was 
then  that  the  Church  awoke  and  set  herself 
about  her  great  task. 

As  yet  the  missionary  idea  had  not  taken 
deep  root.  Largely  and  necessarily  concerned 
in  previous  years  with  the  great  problems  of 
her  own  internal  growth — indeed  of  her  very 
existence  in  the  new  land  where  circumstances 
had  been  so  tremendously  against  her — it  was 
not  strange  that  the  American  Church  should 
not  earlier  have  understood  herself.  She  was, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Nation,  and  largely  in  her 
own  eyes,  a  respectable  and  exclusive  sect  of 
English  origin  and  Tory  proclivities.  Her  mis- 
sionary enterprises,  such  as  they  were,  had 
been  the  efforts  of  a  volunteer  society  embrac- 
ing a  small  number  of  people ;  a  society  which 
men  joined  as  they  might  any  other  association 
for  the  promotion  of  a  worthy  enterprise. 
Loosely  organized,  a  suppliant  for  the  Church's 
casual  bounty,  such  a  society  could  not  obtain 
a  serious  hold  upon  her  consciousness.  The 
vision  was  narrow  and  the  results  were 
meagre. 

But  now  two  great  things  happened:  first, 
the  Church  discovered  that  she  herself  was  the 
missionary  society;  second,  she  created  the 
missionary  episcopate. 


50  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

A  committee  had  been  appointed  at  a  previous 
convention  to  consider  and  report  on  mission- 
ary reorganization.*  It  consisted  of 
Bishop  Gr.  W.  Doane,  the  represen- 
tative High  Churchman  of  his  day,  Bishop  Mc- 
Ilvaine,  the  leading  Evangelical,  and  Dr.  Mil- 
nor,  rector  of  St.  George's  New  York.  To 
them,  in  their  deliberations,  it  came  like  a  reve- 
lation that  there  was  a  simple  and  vital  basis 
for  membership  in  the  missionary  society. 
They  found  themselves  instantly  agreeing  to 
the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Milnor  that  the  Church 
herself  was  such  a  society,  and  that  every  bap- 
tized child  of  hers  was  a  member  thereof.  A 
report  embodying  these  principles  was  im- 
mediately prepared  and  unanimously  adopted, 
and  the  whole  scope  of  the  Church's  missionary 

*  Agitation  looking  toward  the  formation  of  a  missionary 
society  had  begun  as  early  as  1815.  In  1817  the  Eev.  Joseph 
B.  Andrus,  of  the  Eastern  Diocese,  offered  for  missionary 
work  among  the  heathen.  As  we  had  no  organization  under 
which  he  could  be  sent,  he  applied  to  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  of  England,  who  responded,  suggesting  the  formation 
of  a  missionary  society  in  the  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United 
States,  and  offering  by  way  of  encouragement  to  pay  $1,000 
into  its  treasury  when  established.  In  1820  an  abortive 
attempt  was  made,  which  was  followed  in  1821  by  a  regular 
organization  bearing  the  present  title  and  consisting  of  the 
members  of  the  General  Convention  and  such  persons  as  paid 
at  least  $3.00  annually.  The  business  was  conducted  by  a 
Board  of  Directors  who  met  annually  and  a  smaller  executive 
committee  which  met  more  frequently.  There  was  a  treasurer 
and  two  secretaries. 


1 


RT.   REV.   RICHARD    CHANNING   MOORE^   D.D. 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  51 

enterprise  was  thereby  transformed  and  en- 
larged. Instantly  the  new  conception  took  its 
place  among  the  religious  convictions  of  the 
Church,  and  with  it  there  came  an  enlarged 
view  of  her  responsibilities,  which  were  seen  to 
be  not  only  nation-wide,  but  world-wide. 

The  missionary  sermon  preached  by  Bishop 
Mcllvaine  before  the  Convention  sounded  a 
The  Whole         uotc  wliich  has   echoed  throughout 

Church  a  Mission-     .-,  -,.         ,  .^^  .-,. 

ary  Society  the  ycars  and  IS  still  a  guidmg  prin- 
ciple of  our  work: 

*^The  Church  is  a  great  missionary  associa- 
tion, divinely  constituted,  for  the  special  work 
of  sending  into  all  the  world  the  ministers  and 
missionaries  of  the  Word.  But  if  such  be  the 
cardinal  object  of  the  whole  Church,  it  must  be 
alike  the  cardinal  object  and  duty  of  every  part 
of  that  Church,  so  that  whether  a  section 
thereof  be  situated  in  America  or  in  Europe,  or 
the  remotest  latitudes  of  Africa,  it  is  alike  re- 
quired to  attempt  the  enlightening  of  all  the 
earth ;  and  though  it  be  the  smallest  of  the  local 
divisions  of  the  Christian  household,  and 
though  just  on  its  own  narrow  boundaries  there 
may  be  millions  of  neglected  pagans  swarming 
with  the  horrors  of  heathenism,  still  that  little 
section  of  the  Church  is  to  embrace  within  the 
circle  of  its  zeal,  if  not  of  its  immediate  labors, 
the  destitute  of  all  the  earth. '^ 

With  such  words  as  these  echoing  in  their 


52         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

ears  the  members  of  the  Convention  adopted  a 
Constitution  for  the  guidance  of  the  Church's 
Mission,  in  which  it  was  declared  that  ^^This 
Society  shall  be  considered  as  comprehending 
all  persons  who  are  members  of  the  Church,'' 
and  ^^for  the  guidance  of  the  committees  it  is 
declared  that  the  missionary  field  is  always  to 
be  regarded  as  one — The  World ;  the  terms  Do- 
mestic and  Foreign  being  understood  as  terms 
of  locality,  adopted  for  convenience.  Domestic 
Missions  are  those  which  are  established 
within,  and  Foreign  Missions  are  those  which 
are  established  without,  the  territory  of  the 
United  States." 

At  last  the  Church  had  begun  to  understand 
herself !  Thus  she  took  her  first  step  in  a  glori- 
ous advance. 

The  first  question  had  involved  principles 
and  ideals ;  the  second  was  one  of  practical  ef- 
ficiency.   If  the  words  of  her  decla- 

2.  A  New    Method         .  •  ,  i  i  Tn     •  i 

ration  were  true,  the  Jiipiscopai 
Church  in  America,  as  a  national  branch  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  immediately  became  responsi- 
ble for  planting  her  faith  and  order  through- 
out the  nation  and  the  world.  How  was  this 
to  be  done? 

We  must  not  fail  to  recognize  that  the  situa- 
tion was  a  difficult  one.  That  which  is  the  ulti- 
mate strength  of  the  Church  was  for  the  time 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  53 

her  immediate  weakness.  An  Episcopal  Church 
without  a  bishop  is  like  a  body  without  a  head. 
It  is  a  marvel  that  under  the  conditions  of  Co- 
lonial times  the  Church  could  grow  at  all.  Only 
the  distant  and  somewhat  vague  connection 
with  the  See  of  London  served  to  fill  the  great 
void  and  create  a  technical  sense  of  unity.  Yet 
how  was  the  episcopate  to  be  established  in 
distant  places  where  priests  and  parishes  were 
not!  Such  a  thing  had  not  been  heard  of.  The 
only  ideal  of  a  bishop  which  existed  was  that 
of  a  man  who  ruled  over  parishes  already  es- 
tablished, and  controlled  a  Church  already 
brought  into  being.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
apostolic  conception  of  a  bishop  as  the  first 
missionary,  carrying  with  him  to  distant  places 
the  fulness  of  the  Church's  ministry  of  grace, 
had  long  been  obscured. 

It  is  true  that  one  or  two  had  grasped  this 
idea.  Philander  Chase,  the  born  pioneer  and 
Porenumers  of      sturdy  man  of  God,  had  heard  the 

the  Missionary  ^i       n   n  m-i  i  ±. 

Bishops  call  01  the  wilderness  and  gone  out 

into  it.  He  had  himself  felt,  and  had  inspired 
in  others,  a  conviction  of  the  futility  of  an 
Episcopal  Church  without  a  bishop.  Going  to 
Ohio  in  1817  he  was,  in  the  following  year, 
elected  bishop  by  a  so-called  convention  of  two 
clergymen  and  nine  laymen,  and  in  1819  was 
consecrated  as  bishop  of  that  western  wilder- 
ness.   After  heroic  labors  and  hardships — not 


54         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

a  few  of  these  the  results  of  his  dominant  and 
autocratic  personality — leaving  behind  him  as 
a  monument  Kenyon  College,  which  he  estab- 
lished at  Gambler,  he  went  on  in  1831  to  the 
Territory  of  Michigan,  which  then  included 
practically  all  the  known  Northwest.  Plung- 
ing once  more  into  the  trackless  forests,  he  re- 
appears four  years  later  in  Illinois,  where,  in 
this  memorable  year  of  missionary  awakening, 
1835,  by  a  corporal's  guard  he  is  again  elected 
bishop  of  a  diocese  which  had,  in  all,  four  pres- 
byters, one  church  building  and  thirty-nine  com- 
municants. 

James  Hervey  Otey  had  also,  in  1833,  been 
chosen  by  a  convocation  of  five  clergymen — 
the  entire  number  of  clergy  in  that  part  of  the 
country  at  that  time — as  bishop  of  Tennessee, 
and  was  consecrated  in  the  following  year.  He 
attempted  to  do  for  his  state  and  the  great 
southwest  which  lay  beyond  it  some  such  thing 
as  Chase  had  been  doing  in  Ohio  and  Illinois 
with  equal  devotion  and  equal  hardship.  But 
of  him  we  shall  speak  later. 

No  doubt  such  men  as  these  had  uncon- 
sciously been  shaping  the  convictions  of  the 
Church.  It  could  not  but  be  seen  how  sharp 
was  the  dilemma.  On  the  one  side  was  the 
Church's  responsibility — certainly  for  the  en- 
tire nation,  and  after  that  for  the  world;  on 
the  other,  the  ineptitude  of  the  Church  unless 


f~ 


^ 


RT.    REV.    PHILANDER    CHASE,  D.D. 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  55 

equipped  with  her  apostolic  ministry  in  its 
three  orders.  How,  then,  could  the  episcopate 
reach  the  United  States  and  the  world!  Ohio, 
Illinois  and  Tennessee  had  solved  the  question 
by  a  most  desperate  resource — by  electing,  in 
their  feebleness,  a  man  to  whom  they  could  give 
no  support,  and  for  whom  there  was  not  even 
a  strong  parish  of  which  he  could  be  rector. 
This  plainly  was  an  impossible  burden,  which 
only  a  few  daring  souls  would  take  up.  And 
no  man  so  elected  could  hope  to  do  his  work  as 
it  should  be  done. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  there  flashed  upon 

the    mind    of    the    Church    another    solution. 

^  ^     Bishops  must  be  sent,  not  called. 

Bishops  must  be  -^  ^ 

Sent— Not  Called  Studcuts  of  ecclesiastical  polity  re- 
minded themselves  that  the  episcopate  is  com- 
mitted not  to  a  single  man,  but  to  a  body — the 
episcopatum  in  solidum.  Not  to  the  individual 
bishop,  but  to  the  House  of  Bishops  was  en- 
trusted the  preservation  of  faith  and  order, 
and  therefore  the  jurisdiction  over  the  national 
Church. 

If  the  jurisdiction  lay  with  them,  then  the 
power  of  mission  also  was  theirs.  It  was  com- 
petent for  them  to  choose  and  create  a  bishop 
who  should  be  their  vicar,  and  represent  the 
American  Episcopate  in  places  where  its  con- 
stituent members  could  not  go.  And  thus  there 
emerges  the  Missionary  Bishop,  elected  by  the 


56         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

House  of  Bishops  and  exercising  jurisdiction 
on  its  behalf  in  such  places  outside  the  limits 
of  organized  dioceses  as  it  shall  decree. 

This  was  a  perfectly  sane  and  logical  solution 
of  the  problem — and  it  was  also  a  restoration 
of  the  primitive  ideal  of  the  episcopate.  It  was 
the  opening  of  a  door  of  opportunity  so  great 
that  the  Church  of  that  day  could  not  possibly 
have  understood  the  consequences  which  were 
to  follow.* 

Yet  some  forecast  of  that  which  God  was 
doing  through  them  must  have  stirred  the 
hearts  of  these  good  fathers  of  the  Church. 
Many  of  them  had  stood  faithful  in  the  sad  day 
of  disappointment  and  in  the  trying  day  of  in- 
ternal growth.  Now  their  vision  seemed  sud- 
denly enlarged,  and  the  whole  Convention 
breathed  a  hope  and  an  enthusiasm  such  as 
had  never  been  known  in  the  Episcopal  Church.' 

At  last  the  Church  was  awakening.      Great 

trials,  many  disappointments,  even  sad  discour- 

asrements   lay  before  her,  but  she 

The  Church  ,       -,    ,     ,  ,  ,       -,  ^n  i  i 

racing  her  Task  j^ad  takcu  up  her  task  and  laced  her 
problem.  The  events  of  this  memorable  year 
had  determined  the  ideals  by  which  she  was  to 
be  guided.    She  knew  herself  set  to  be  a  mis- 

*  Some  one  has  described  this  as  ' '  one  of  the  few  occa- 
sions when  the  Episcopal  Church  really  acted  as  though  she  be- 
lieved in  episcopacy." 


The  Gathering  of  the  Forces  57 

sionary  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
this  land,  and  the  lands  beyond — and  she  has 
never  lost  the  vision.  She  was  at  last  true  to 
the  commission  of  her  Lord,  and  her  reward 
came  according  as  she  was  faithful. 


Ill 


IN  THE  LAND  OF  THE  LAKES  AND 
EIVERS 

4 

I 

THE  Churcli  assembled  in  her  General 
Convention  of  1835  had  seen  a  new  vision 
of  herself  as  a  host  whose  marching 
orders  pointed  toward  the  lands  beyond.  In- 
spired by  this  conviction,  a  new  adaptation  of 
The  Response  primitive  order  had  been  made,  and 
tothecau  ^  canon  establishing  the  missionary 
episcopate  had  been  passed.  It  remained  to 
choose  the  fields  and  select  their  bishops. 

On  the  first  day  of  September  the  announce- 
ment came  that  the  House  of  Bishops  had 
elected  men  for  the  Northwest  and  the  South- 
west. These  vague  terms  practically  meant 
the  old  Northwest  Territory  and  a  newer 
Southwest  lying  beyond  the  Mississippi,  whose 
bishop,  to  use  a  term  borrowed  from  the 
weather  bureau,  was  to  be  ^^  central  in  Ar- 
kansas." 

Thus  the  first  application  of  the  missionary 
episcopate  was  to  our  own  land,  and  not  to  a 
foreign  field.  Perhaps  the  Church  had  not  yet 
received  her  broadest  vision;  for  it  was  nine 

58 


BISHOP  KEMPER  IN  HIS 
YOUTH 


BISHOP  C.   P.    McILVAINE 


BISHOP   G.    W.    DOANE 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    59 

years  later  that  our  first  missionary  bishop 
was  consecrated  for  a  foreign  land,  but  from 
that  time  the  expansion  of  the  episcopate  at 
home  and  abroad  proceeded  on  an  equal  foot- 
ing.* Probably  a  majority  in  this  convention 
would  not  have  been  ready  to  send  a  bishop 
beyond  the  seas ;  at  any  rate  it  was  decided  to 
try  the  new  officer  of  missionary  advance  first 
in  the  home  field.  The  need  for  him  there  was 
specially  realized  by  these  men  whose  children 
were  looking,  or  it  may  be,  already  trooping, 
toward  the  west. 

So  with  solemn  earnestness  the   House   of 
Bishops  responded  to  the  call  for  a  great  ad- 
vance and  chose  the  Eev.  Francis 

Leaders  Chosen        -g-       -j-r-        -,  -r\  t\  t>  •    i  i?    j.i 

L.  Hawks,  D.D.,  as  Bishop  oi  the 
Southwest,  and  the  Rev.  Jackson  Kemper, 
D.D.,  as  Bishop  of  Indiana  and  Missouri,  to 
which  title  was  afterwards  added  that  of  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  of  the  Northwest.  Both  men 
were  prominent  clergy  of  the  Church  in  their 
day.  Dr.  Hawks  being  rector  of  Calvary 
Church,  New  York,  and  Dr.  Kemper  of  St. 
PauPs  Church,  Norwalk,  Connecticut. 

Jackson  Kemper  was  born  in  the  year  1789, 
and  was  of  German  ancestry.  He  had  received 
a  liberal  education  and  had  enjoyed  the  ad- 

*  Since  Bishop  Kempeir  's  day  practically  one-third  of  the 
consecrations  have  been  to  the  missionary  episcopate.  Of 
these  bishops  one-fourth  have  been  sent  to  foreign  lands. 


60         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

vantages  of  culture  and  refinement.  The 
greater  part  of  his  ministry,  which  had  ex- 
tended over  twenty-four  years,  was  spent  in 
Philadelphia  in  close  association  with  Bishop 
White,  whose  faithful  helper  he  was  in  all  dio- 
cesan matters. 

Dr.  Hawks  declined  his  election,  and  the 
Southwest  had  to  wait  for  its  bishop,  but  with 
soldierly  promptness  Jackson  Kemper,  having 
seen  a  duty,  hastened  to  perform  it.  He  ac- 
cepted the  office  and  was  consecrated  at  St. 
Peter's,  Philadelphia,  on  September  25th — the 
last  man  upon  whom  the  patriarchal  Bishop 
White  laid  hands  in  consecration.  In  this  act 
there  also  joined  that  bishop — twice  technically 
a  diocesan,  but  really  a  veteran  missionary — 
Philander  Chase.  It  was  a  good  strain  from 
which  to  derive  one's  spiritual  lineage. 

The  great  sermon  preached  by  Bishop 
Doane  at  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Kemper 
The  Marching  ^^^  a  uoble  uttcrauce.  *^What," 
Orders  j^^  said,  *  4s  moaut  by  a  missionary 

bishop?  A  bishop  sent  forth  by  the  Church, 
not  sought  for  of  the  Church;  going  before  to 
organize  the  Church,  not  waiting  till  the  Church 
has  partially  been  organized;  a  leader,  not  a 
follower,  in  the  march  of  the  Redeemer's  con- 
quering and  triumphant  Gospel;  sustained  by 
their  alms  whom  God  has  blessed  both  with  the 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers     61 

power  and  will  to  offer  Him  of  their  substance, 
for  their  benefit  who  are  not  blessed  with  both 
or  either  of  them ;  sent  by  the  Church,  even  as 
the  Church  is  sent  by  Christ. 

^'To  every  soul  of  man,  in  every  part  of  the 
world,  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached.  Every- 
where the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached  hy,  through 
and  in  the  Church.  To  bishops,  as  successors 
of  the  Apostles,  the  promise  of  the  Lord  was 
given  to  be  with  His  Church  ^always,  to  the 
end  of  the  world.'  .  .  .  Open  your  eyes  to 
the  wants,  open  your  ears  to  the  cry,  open  your 
hands  for  the  relief,  of  a  perishing  world.  Send 
the  Gospel.  Send  it,  as  you  have  received  it, 
in  the  Church.  Send  out,  to  preach  the  Gospel, 
and  to  build  the  Church — to  every  portion  of 
your  own  broad  land,  to  every  stronghold  of 
the  Prince  of  hell,  to  every  den  and  nook  and 
lurking  place  of  heathendom — a  missionary 
bishop ! ' ' 

Such  was  the  ideal  of  the  Church's  Mission 
which  we  shall  see  worked  out  in  the  following 
The  Line  chaptcrs.    Each  chapter  will  suggest 

of  March  ^  different  problem,  presenting  it  by 

the  use  of  typical  illustrations : 

(1)  Kemper  seeking  the  Pilgrim  Children 
in  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Eivers. 

(2)  Whipple  and  Hare  on  the  prairies  win- 
ning the  Foreigner  and  the  Indian. 


62         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

(3)  Tuttle  in  the  mountains  among  the  Pe- 
culiar Peoples. 

(4)  Kip  and  Scott,  Morris  and  Eowe  at  the 
meeting-place  of  the  East  and  West,  on  the 
Shores  of  the  Pacific. 

Many  other  problems  were  of  course  in- 
volved, for  every  missionary  bishop  has  faced 
a  more  or  less  complex  situation.  Life  and 
growth  can  never  be  rigidly  classified,  and  no 
arbitrary  divisions,  however  broadly  true,  can 
be  exclusively  so.  Yet  it  is  true  that  with  these 
special  phases,  which  cover  so  many  lines  of 
missionary  endeavor,  the  periods  and  persons 
of  whom  we  shall  treat  were  particularly  con- 
cerned. 

"Within  six  weeks  Bishop  Kemper  was  on  his 
way  to  his  distant  field.  Not  altogether  as  a 
Kem  er  First  straugcr  did  he  go,  for  in  company 
Missionary  Bishop  ^^]j  j)j.^  Miluor  hc  had,  the  year  be- 
fore, visited  the  Indian  mission  at  Green  Bay, 
and  through  his  activity  as  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  Missions*  he  was  already  familiar 
with  such  work  as  was  being  carried  on  in  the 
West;  while  in  the  twenty  years  he  had 
spent,  not  only  as  a  parish  priest  in  Phila- 
delphia, but  as  an  active  missionary  making 

*  Bishop  Kemper  was  a  member  of  the  first  and  all  succeed- 
ing missionary  boards  of  the  general  Church.  See  note  on 
p.  50. 


RT.  REV.  JACKSON  KEMPER,  D.D. 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    63 

yearly  tours  throughout  western  Pennsylvania, 
he  had  learned  many  lessons  of  border  work 
and  life. 

Consecrated  for  Indiana  and  Missouri  (be- 
tween which  two  jurisdictions  lay  the  state  of 
Illinois),  Bishop  Kemper  found  on  arriving  in 
his  field  that  he  was  possessed  of  the  following 
equipment:  One  clergyman,  but  no  church 
building  in  Indiana;  one  church  building,  but 
no  clergyman  in  Missouri !  And  here  he  began 
to  lay  foundations.  Accompanied  by  the  Kev. 
Samuel  Eoosevelt  Johnson,  who  had  come  with 
him  from  the  East,  he  traversed  the  southern 
portion  of  Indiana,  visiting  towns  of  a  thou- 
sand inhabitants  which  had  no  place  of  public 
worship.  Across  the  southern  part  of  Illinois 
they  drove  in  an  open  wagon  with  the  trunks 
serving  as  seats,  and  toiling  through  a  swamp 
fitly  named  ** Purgatory''  arrived  at  St.  Louis 
the  middle  of  December. 

Already  for  years  the  increasing  tide  of  im- 
migration had  been  pouring  into  the  new  terri- 
tory across  the  Alleghanies  or  mak- 
His  Task  'jjg  -^g  entrance  by  way  of  the  Great 

Lakes.  The  population  in  1835  may  be  roughly 
estimated  at  830,000.  Its  area  was  over 
300,000  square  miles.  In  every  band  of  immi- 
grants there  had  been  some,  at  least,  connected 
with  the    Episcopal  Church,  but  almost  never 


64         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

had  that  Church  in  any  effective  way  accom- 
panied the  movements  of  the  population.  It 
was  the  Methodist  circuit-rider,  or  the  itinerant 
Baptist  preacher,  or  the  hardy  Presbyterian 
minister  who  was  to  be  found  doing,  as  best  he 
might,  the  pioneer  work  of  the  frontier.  The 
allegation  of  the  present  day  that  the  Episcopal 
Church  always  arrives  with  the  Pullman  car, 
and  never  by  any  chance  with  the  ox-team,  was 
true  in  the  days  when  there  were  no  Pullman 
cars  and  very  few  ox-teams — when  on  foot,  or 
at  best  on  horse-back,  or  perhaps  in  some  small 
boat,  men  found  their  way  along  the  trails 
which  led  toward  the  west. 

Some  beginnings  had,  of  course,  been  made 
by  the  Church.  We  have  seen  how  Philander 
Chase,  in  1817,  had  been  among  the  pioneers 
of  Ohio  and  had  early  established  a  central 
Church  influence  there,  becoming  its  first 
bishop;  and  how,  in  1831,  resigning  Ohio,  this 
indomitable  pioneer  had  pushed  on  into  Michi- 
gan, and  became  four  years  later  the  Bishop  of 
Illinois.  Michigan  had  organized  a  diocese,  but 
had  no  bishop.  It  boasted  eight  clergymen,  in- 
cluding a  navy  chaplain,  ten  parishes,  two  hun- 
dred communicants  and  three  church  buildings. 
There  was  an  Indian  mission  at  Green  Bay, 
Wisconsin,  whither  the  Oneidas,  deported  from 
New  York  in  1823,  had  been  followed  by  the  af- 
fectionate interest  of  Bishop  Hobart.      With 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    65 

these  exceptions  the  Church  was  practically  un- 
represented in  the  great  Northwest  Territory, 
save  as  there  might  be  a  casual  priest  or  dea- 
con who  for  health  or  family  reasons  had 
chanced  to  join  the  pioneers;  or  where  some 
army  chaplain  ministered  to  the  people  near 
his  post. 

Probably  there  were  not,  in  all  the  country 
lying  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  more  than  thirty 
clergy  and  perhaps  a  score  of  church  buildings. 
The  actually  recorded  communicants  numbered 
less  than  a  thousand,  though  in  every  direction 
there  were  the  scattered  sheep  who  belonged 
to  the  Churches  flock,  but  had  none  to  rally  or 
feed  them. 

Such  was  the  problem  of  our  first  missionary 
bishop.  To  follow  his  journeyings  and  to 
trace  the  history  of  his  achievements  would  be 
impossible.  We  shall  try  rather  to  discover 
what  were  the  difficulties  he  was  confronting, 
what  the  personality  of  the  man,  and  what 
measure  of  success  was  granted  to  him  during 
this  period  of  the  Church's  expansion. 

The  performance  of  his  work  was  beset  with 
serious  difficulties,  some  of  which  may  be  indi- 
cated thus:   (1)   The  vast  territory 

His  Diffloalties  7     .7  /•  •       ,• 

ana  the  means  of  communication. 
Bishop  Kemper  was  not  willing  to  be  anything 
less  than  the  bishop  of  all  the  people  and  of 


66         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

the  whole  country,  but  there  was  not  a  single 
railway  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Over  a  region 
comprising  the  present  states  of  Indiana,  Mis- 
souri, Iowa,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and  parts 
of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  he  was  compelled  to 
travel  by  stage  coach  or  lumber  wagon,  in  the 
saddle  or  on  foot,  except  where  he  could  use 
the  Mississippi  and  its  confluents.  His  greatest 
luxury  was  the  cabin  of  a  river  steamer  of  the 
early  day. 

(2)  The  laclc  of  helpers.  Enthusiastic  as  the 
Church  had  been  in  sending  out  her  missionary 
bishops,  they  were  very  rarely  followed  by  mis- 
sionary priests.  A  few  devoted  men  like 
Breck,  Adams  and  Hobart,  at  Nashotah,  or 
the  little  band  that  began  pioneer  work  in  Min- 
nesota, were  his  chief  reliance.  For  years,  in 
many  places,  he  was  not  only  bishop,  but  the 
whole  band  of  clergy.  Failing  to  secure  helpers 
in  the  east  he  turned  with  energy  to  the  field 
itself,  and  in  the  hope  of  eventually  developing 
a  trained  body  of  la^nnen  and  some  future 
clergy  within  his  own  territory,  he  founded 
Kemper  College,  St.  Louis,  and  persuaded 
Breck  and  his  companions  to  give  themselves 
for  the  establishment  of  an  associate  mission 
out  of  which  grew  Nashotah,*  and  later  Sea- 

*  For  the  history  of  Nashotah  see  a  pamphlet  entitled 
Nashotah  House,  by  Bishop  Webb.  Church  Missions  Pub- 
lishing Co. 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    67 

bury.    But  the  clergy  raised  from  the  soil  were 
still  a  long  way  off. 

(3)  The  Pilgrim  Children,  The  settlement 
of  the  Middle  West  was  largely  from  the  East. 
The  special  problem  was,  as  we  have  said,  that 
of  the  Pilgrim  Children.  Literally  so,  for  the 
vast  majority  were  Puritans,  or  at  least  un- 
familiar with  the  Anglican  Church.  The 
Church  in  the  East  had  appealed  chiefly  to  the 
more  cultured  and  wealthier  people.  Few  of 
these  migrated  to  the  West,  which  was  much 
given  over  to  extravagant  forms  of  revivalism. 
The  sect  spirit  was  rampant.  There  were 
fine  types  of  devoted  Christian  men  among  the 
border  ministry  of  that  day,  but  these  were  not 
common;  more  frequently  the  preachers  were 
lacking  in  education,  and  sometimes  in  qualities 
more  important  for  one  who  is  to  stand  as  a 
Christian  example.  Men  living  in  a  region 
burned  over  by  the  fires  of  religious  sensation- 
alism were  repelled  by  the  lack  of  correspond- 
ence between  religion  and  morality.  Freed 
from  the  religious  restraints  of  their  earlier 
home,  and  eager  chiefly  to  seize  material  op- 
portunities and  acquire  sudden  wealth,  thou- 
sands had  grown  careless  or  abandoned  all  re- 
ligious practices. 

(4)  The  crudities  and  uncertainties  of  a  new 
land.  The  material  out  of  which,  and  the  in- 
struments by  which,  a  religious  life  such  as  the 


68  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Church  inculcates  could  he  formed  were  largely 
lacking.  Schools  were  few;  churches  there 
were  none.  Many  of  the  settlers  had  little  but 
their  clothing  and  their  optimism — not  much 
of  the  former  but  plenty  of  the  latter,  as  is 
usually  the  case  in  a  new  land.  Each  little 
hamlet  was  certain  that  it  would  become  a  great 
metropolis.  Each  one  of  a  thousand  communi- 
ties, far  more  promising  than  that  frontier 
trading-post  set  in  the  mud  at  the  foot  of  Lake 
Michigan,  dreamed  of  itself  as  a  Chicago.  And 
how  could  one  foresee  the  drift  of  the  future? 
Who  could  know  where  railways  would  run 
and  great  cities  spring  up,  or  where  the  Govern- 
ment would  start  its  reclamation  projects? 

So  leaders  of  the  Church  of  that  day  some- 
times made  mistakes  of  judgment.  Occasion- 
ally the  wrong  place  was  manned,  or  a  school 
or  church  established  in  a  community  which 
did  not  fulfil  the  promise  of  its  youth.  The 
restlessness  of  a  frontier  people — many  of 
whom  had  come,  not  to  build  homes  or  make 
permanent  settlements,  but  to  wring  a  coveted 
fortune  somehow,  as  quickly  as  possible,  out  of 
a  new  land — made  consecutive  and  constructive 
Church  work  most  difficult;  but  the  wonder 
here,  as  in  every  case  where  men  have  gone 
obediently  trying  to  fulfil  the  command  and 
spread  the  Kingdom,  was  that  such  great 
things   were  accomplished  with  such  meagre 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    69 

resources    and    that    the    mistakes    were    so 
few.* 

(5)  The  lack  of  financial  support.  Probably 
there  is  no  missionary  enterprise  which  has  not 
thus  suffered,  and  does  not  continue  to  do  so; 
and  until  such  time  as  all  shall  recognize  their 
duty  to  be  either  missionaries  or  the  supporters 
of  missionaries  no  doubt  the  lack  of  money  will 
be  a  serious  obstacle,  but  this  was  conspicu- 
ously the  case  at  the  beginning  of  the  Church's 
work  in  the  middle  west.  The  missionary 
contributions  of  that  day  amounted  to  only 
$30,000,  and  only  one-half  of  that  was  available 
for  domestic  missions.  Again  and  again  Chase 
and  Kemper,  and  the  bishops  who  followed 
them,  appealed  to  the  Church  for  the  pittance 
which,  added  to  the  sum  received  from  their 
fields,  would  give  the  clergy  a  living  support, 
but  too  frequently  they  asked  in  vain.  Dis- 
couraged by  this  failure  and  oppressed  by  the 
little  he  was  able  to  accomplish  in  the  face  of 
the  rapid  increase  in  the  population,  we  find 
even  the  sunny-hearted  and  trusting  Kemper 
saying:  ''Were  it  not  for  the  sure  word  of 
prophecy  and  the  precious  promises  of  the  Ee- 
deemer,  I  would  wish  to  relinquish  the  post 

*  Anyone  who  has  seen  the  abandoned  enterprises  and  de- 
serted manufacturing  and  agricultural  plants  which  strew  our 
Western  country,  will  realize  how  vastly  they  are  in  excess 
of  any  mistakes  or  failures  which  may  be  credited  to  the 
Church.     Yet  the  former  were  projected  by  keen  business  men. 


70         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

which  I  sought  not,  and  where  I  have  almost 
thought  at  times  that  I  commanded  a  forlorn 
hope.'' 

Not  only  did  he  suffer  disappointment  from 
the  general  Church,  but  we  find  him  also 
mourning  over  the  niggardliness  of  congrega- 
tions which  might  better  support  their  clergy. 
His  frequent  appeal  was  for  the  inculcation  of 
self-support — that  branch  of  teaching  so  often, 
through  false  modesty  or  sensitiveness,  neg- 
lected by  the  clergy.  In  one  church  we  find 
him  saying  to  a  congregation  where  a  mission- 
ary of  the  Board  had  labored  for  five  years 
without  local  remuneration,  ^'You  have  no 
right  to  expect  the  Mission  Board  to  sustain 
you  forever.  I  desire  to  make  this  fact  plain 
and  clear  to  this  congregation."  Even  this 
plainness  of  speech  brought  small  response, 
for  the  gift  of  the  following  two  years 
amounted  to  $65.00. 

Such  was  the  task,  but  outweighing  the  diffi- 
culties there  were  fundamental  elements  of  suc- 
cess.    There  was  the  certainty  of 

His  Encouragements /^i      ...  .  .        ^  •  n       n 

Christ  s  promise  to  be  with  those 
who  go  in  His  name  to  win  His  children ;  there 
was  the  bishop 's  supreme  faith  in  his  own  apos- 
tolic mission;  and  there  were,  scattered 
throughout  the  vast  area  over  which  he  trav- 
elled, the  scores  of  faithful  souls  who  still  loved 


PREACHING  CROSS   ON   THE     SITE   OF    NASHOTAH's    FIRST 

ALTAR 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    71 

the  Church  of  their  early  days,  and  whose 
touching  gratitude  for  his  ministrations  made 
his  pilgrimages  and  his  hardships  a  joy.  Out 
of  this  seed  the  Church  of  the  middle  west  was 
born,  and  by  men  who  were  worthy  followers 
of  this  great  leader  her  foundations  in  that 
great  region  were  laid. 

We  have  said  almost  nothing  about  the  man 
himself,  partly  because  his  was  a  complex  na- 
ture somewhat  difficult  to  analyze, 

His  Personality  ''       ^ 

and  partly  because  the  man  is  best 
described  by  telling  of  his  accomplishments; 
but  the  following  estimate  from  the  pen  of  a 
layman  is  worthy  of  reproduction.  The  writer 
was  the  Hon.  Isaac  Atwater,  editor  of  one  of 
the  first  papers  in  the  Territory  of  Minnesota, 
published  at  St.  Anthony  Falls,  afterward 
Minneapolis.  He  describes  the  bishop  as  he 
appeared  when  making  a  visitation  to  Minne- 
sota in  1852 : 

*^  Bishop  Kemper  appears  something  over 
fifty  years  of  age.  Although  his  hair  is  as- 
suming a  silvery  gray,  time  has  in  other  re- 
spects dealt  lightly  with  him;  for  his  frame  is 
erect,  his  step  is  as  firm  and  complexion  as 
ruddy  as  thirty  years  ago.  His  countenance 
bears  the  unmistakable  impress  of  benevolence 
and  kindness  of  heart.  You  cannot  look  upon 
his  bland,  open  face  and  portly  frame,  strong 


72         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

with  vigorous  health,  without  feeling  that  the 
heart  within  dwells  in  perpetual  sunshine. 

*^0n  a  beautiful  and  quiet  farm  in  the  east- 
ern part  of  Wisconsin,  while  not  engaged  in  the 
arduous  duties  of  his  station,  in  unostentatious 
dignity  and  unaffected  simplicity,  he  illustrates 
in  his  daily  life  all  the  Christian  virtues  of  the 
Gospel  which  he  so  successfully  and  eloquently 
preaches. 

*  ^  In  action  he  is  not  a  disciple  of  the  Demos- 
thenean  eloquence.  His  gestures  are  few  and 
not  remarkably  graceful,  though  generally  ap- 
propriate and  well-timed.  He  has  a  voice  of 
great  sweetness,  musical  in  its  intonations, 
which  he  manages  with  skill  and  effect.  There 
is  something  in  the  tone,  inflections  and  volume 
of  his  voice  as  he  reads  a  hymn  or  the  sublime 
service  of  the  Church,  that  convinces  you  there 
is  heart,  soul,  feeling  there. 

**His  sermons  are  logical,  instructive  and 
practical.  Some  of  them  are  beautiful  speci- 
mens of  elegant  composition,  but  in  general 
would  not  receive  as  much  attention  in  print 
as  when  falling  from  the  author's  lips.  Much 
of  their  power  consists  in  delivery — in  the 
speaker's  earnestness,  sincerity  and  unaffected 
goodness.  He  preaches  to  the  heart  rather  than 
to  the  head;  appeals  more  to  the  moral  senti- 
ments and  warm  sympathies  of  the  soul  than 
to  the  intellectual  and  reasoning  faculties.    He 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    73 

is  always  elevated,  solemn  and  impressive.  He 
never  lets  fall  a  trifling  remark,  or  one  calcu- 
lated to  raise  a  smile  on  the  countenance  of  his 
hearers.  Nor  does  he  pause  to  entertain  his 
audience  with  touches  of  fancy  or  flights  of 
imagination. 

*' Bishop  Kemper  displays  in  his  sermons 
nothing  of  the  subtle  metaphysician.  It  re- 
quires no  careful  thought  or  intense  applica- 
tion to  follow  him  in  his  train  of  reasoning. 
Sentence  after  sentence,  big  with  important 
truth,  rolls  from  his  lips,  and  falls  with  most 
irresistible  persuasion  and  convincing  elo- 
quence on  the  heart  of  the  sinner.  He  does  not 
inform  the  intellect  and  leave  the  heart  un- 
affected. 

**In  the  social  circle  Bishop  Kemper  is  at 
once  dignified  and  affable,  frank  and  open  in 
conversation,  perfectly  at  ease  himself,  and 
possessing  the  happy  faculty  of  making  all 
within  his  influence  feel  the  sunshine  of  his 
presence.  It  is  in  the  interchange  of  the  ^  gentle 
courtesies  and  sweet  amenities'  that  some  of 
the  loveliest  and  most  striking  traits  of  his 
character  are  displayed.  In  him  are  blended 
the  varied  characters  of  the  faithful  minister, 
the  kind  neighbor,  the  disinterested  friend,  the 
patriotic  citizen  and  the  refined  gentleman. ' ' 

Such  was  the  man  who  went  up  and  down  the 
western  valleys,  visiting  feeble  missions  and 


74  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

presiding  at  convocations  and  councils.  Said 
a  prosperous  western  man,  pointing  to  Bishop 
Kemper:  '^Yonder  is  the  richest  man  in  Wis- 
consin.'' *'To  the  worldly,"  says  Bishop 
Whipple,  ^*he  showed  the  beautiful  simplicity 
of  a  life  of  self-denial;  yet  he  was  always  and 
everywhere  the  bishop.  In  the  lumberman's 
camp,  in  the  Chippeway  lodge,  in  the  log-cabin 
or  the  city  home,  men  saw  in  the  simple  gran- 
deur of  his  holy  life  Hhe  sign  and  seal  of  his 
apostleship.'  " 

For  nearly  thirty-five  of  the  sixty  years  dur- 
ing which  he  served  at  the  altar.  Bishop  Kem- 
per traversed  the  land  to  which  he 

His  Achievement      |^^^   ^^^^    ^^^^^       q^^    ^f^^^    aUOthcr, 

dioceses  were  erected  out  of  his  vast  jurisdic- 
tion, and  at  last,  when  in  1859  the  election  of 
Bishop  Whipple  was  approved  by  the  General 
Convention,  he  reluctantly  surrendered  the  title 
of  missionary  bishop  which  he  had  so  nobly 
borne,  and  became  the  diocesan  of  Wisconsin. 
*'What  had  been  accomplished?  Twenty- 
four  years  had  passed  away,  and  by  God's 
blessing  on  the  Church  he  now  saw  Missouri  a 
diocese,  with  its  bishop  and  twenty-seven 
clergy;  Indiana  a  diocese,  with  its  bishop  and 
twenty- five  clergy;  Wisconsin,  his  own  diocese, 
with  fifty-five  clergy;  Iowa  a  diocese,  with  its 
bishop  and  thirty-one  clergy;  Minnesota  an  or- 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers     75 

ganized  diocese,  with  twenty  clergy;  Kansas 
but  just  organized  as  a  diocese,  with  ten  clergy ; 
and  the  territory  of  Nebraska  not  yet  organ- 
ized as  a  diocese,  with  four  clergy;  in  all  six 
dioceses  where  he  began  with  none,  and  one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  clergymen  where  he 
at  first  found  two."* 

As  though  this  were  not  enough,  he  devoted 
himself  for  another  ten  years  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  diocese.  He  was  spared  to  see 
his  eightieth  birthday,  on  Christmas  Eve,  1869, 
but  with  the  coming  of  the  new  year  his 
strength  began  to  fail.  Still  for  several  weeks 
he  discharged  his  official  duties,  oftentimes 
writing  his  own  letters,  and  to  the  end — which 
came  on  May  24th — he  was  serving  the  Church 
to  which  he  had  already  given  a  service  almost 
unparalleled  in  Christian  history.  His  body 
rests  in  the  cemetery  at  Nashotah,  surrounded 
by  many  who  were  his  stanch  helpers  in  that 
early  day ;  and  of  liim  his  biographer  has  justly 
said: 

^'The  Napoleon  of  a  spiritual  empire  had 
passed  away — and  who  would  not  prefer  Kem- 
per's  crown  to  Bonaparte's?  The  missionary 
bishop  of  a  jurisdiction  greater  than  any  since 
the  days  of  the  apostles — and  St.  Paul  himself 
had  not  travelled  as  widely  and  as  long,  for 

*  Greenough  White :  A71  Apostle  of  the  Western  Church, 
page  177. 


76  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Kemper    had    gone    300,000    miles    upon    his 

Master's    service — was    gone    to    his    reward. 

Well  had  his  life  borne  out  the  meaning  of  his 

name:    'Kemper:    A    Champion.'     With    the 

great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  he  could  say:  *I 

have  fought  a  good  fight;  I  have  finished  my 

course;  I  have  kept  the  faith.'  "* 

Preeminent  above  all  others  stood  our  first 

great  missionary  bishop.    He  had  no  equal  in 

otey-The Faith-  ^^^  owu  day  and  has  had  none  unto 
fniFeuow-iaborep  ^j^'g  ^'j^^^  ^^^  ^j^^j.^  ^g  another  who 

should  be  mentioned  as  next  in  honor,  with 
whom,  through  many  years,  he  labored  in 
faithful  cooperation  and  loving  comradeship 
— the  pioneer  of  the  Church  in  the  old  South- 
west Territory. 

James  Hervey  Otey  was  a  six-foot-three 
giant,  son  of  a  Virginia  farmer,  who  graduated 
at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  and  joined 
the  stream  of  emigration  which  was  flowing 
toward  the  west,  landing  in  Tennessee.  While 
working  as  a  pioneer  school-teacher  he  came 
into  contact  with  a  passing  priest  of  the  Church 
and  was  baptized.  Going  to  North  Carolina 
he  was  ordained  by  Bishop  Eavenscroft  and 
returned  to  Tennessee,  the  only  one  of  our 
clergy  within  the  state,  or  within  two  hundred 
miles  of  his  place  of  residence.    A  Church  his- 

*  Greenough  White:  An  Apostle  of  the  Western  Church, 
page  231. 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    77 

torian  says  of  him :  *  *  His  office  was  despised  by 
the  people  among  whom  he  lived,  and  his 
Church  was  held  in  contempt.  Curiosity  drew 
the  people  to  ^hear  the  Episcopal  minister 
pray,  and  his  wife  jaw  back  at  him'  in  the 
responses.  When  they  had  come,  however, 
Otey's  splendid  character  and  deep  earnestness 
retained  them.  He  was  a  man  of  the  back- 
woodsman 's  own  sort.  Once  when  he  was  asleep 
in  a  rude  tavern  a  local  gambler  waked  him 
roughly  and  demanded  possession  of  the  bed. 
When  the  sleepy  man  demurred  the  gambler 
threatened  to  throw  him  out  of  the  window. 
Then  the  sturdy  priest  thrust  from  under  the 
cover  a  brawny  arm,  worthy  of  the  Holy  Clerk 
of  Copmanhurst,  and  said:  ^Before  you  try  to 
throw  me  out  of  the  window  please  feel  that.' 
His  stalwart  Christian  manliness  and  sweet 
devotion  made  him  and  his  Church  respected. 
He  was  tireless  and  successful  in  laboring  for 
its  growth.  In  1829  he,  with  two  other  clergy- 
men, met  in  Nashville  and  organized  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Tennessee. 
When  their  number  grew  to  five  (1833)  they 
chose  Otey  bishop,  and  a  new  state  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  federal  Church.  The  churches  in 
Mississippi  put  themselves  under  Bishop  Otey's 
care.  Like  Chase  in  Ohio  he  dreamed  of  a 
theological  school.  He  was  a  teacher  by  in- 
stinct and  habit.    He  labored  for  years  to  es- 


78  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

tablish  Christian  education.  He  left  his  im- 
press upon  the  public  schools  of  his  own  state 
and  Mississippi.  He  founded  a  school  for  girls 
and  another  for  boys.  But  his  own  dream  did 
not  come  true  for  many  a  year,  when  it  was 
realized  in  the  University  of  the  South.  In  the 
first  ^ve  years  of  his  episcopate  the  clergy  of 
his  diocese  increased  from  five  to  twenty-one. 
But  a  whole  generation  had  meanwhile  been 
lost  to  the  Church."* 

Kemper  and  Otey  were  close  and  life-long 
friends.  Though  far  separated  and  each  re- 
A  Circuit  in  spousiblc  for  a  vast  territory,  in 
the  South  purpose  and  sympathy  they  fought 

shoulder  to  shoulder.  In  the  fall  of  1837 
Bishop  Otey  wrote  urging  his  brother  of  the 
north  to  accompany  him  on  a  tour  of  the  south. 
To  Kemper  the  invitation  came  as  a  constrain- 
ing call,  and  accordingly,  in  January,  1838,  he 
dropped  down  the  great  river  to  Memphis, 
where  news  reached  him  that  Otey,  prostrated 
by  an  attack  of  fever,  begged  him  to  make  the 
visitation  in  his  stead.  ^'If  possible  I  shall 
gratify  him,'^  Kemper  wrote  home,  ^^for  I  am 
much  attached  to  him  and  I  belong  entirely  to 
the  Church. '^  So  began  a  magnificent  tour 
which,  taken  in  connection  with  his  other  activi- 
ties, affords  a  most  impressive  spectacle  of  the 

*  McConnell :  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  page  307. 


RT.    REV.   JAMES   H.    OTEY,    D.D.,    LL.D. 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    79 

expansion  of  the  Church  throughout  the  land 
at  the  opening  of  the  second  generation  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  His  route  lay  through 
Natchez,  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  Pensacola, 
Tallahassee,  Macon,  Columbus  (Georgia), 
Montgomery,  Greensboro,  Tuscaloosa,  and  Co- 
lumbus (Mississippi),  and  terminated  at  Mo- 
bile and  New  Orleans,  whither  he  returned  in 
May.  He  could  report  that  in  about  four 
months  he  had  visited  nearly  all  the  parishes  in 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia  and 
Florida,  confirming  in  nearly  all;  that  he  had 
consecrated  eight  churches  and  advanced  two 
deacons  to  the  priesthood ;  and  that  he  had  be- 
come a  living  witness  to  the  Church  at  large  of 
the  wants,  claims  and  prospects  of  the  south- 
west.* 

Even  the  above  resume  does  not  do  full  jus- 
tice to  the  work  of  Bishop  Otey.  He  felt  him- 
self responsible  for  the  lands  and  the  peoples 
which  lay  beyond  the  Mississippi,  and  tried  to 
penetrate  as  far  as  possible  toward  the  west. 
With  two  such  men  on  the  skirmish  line  the 
Church  was  at  least  occasionally  heard  of  and 
known  to  exist — but  the  line  was  two  thousand 
miles  long.  What  would  have  been  the  result 
had  the  men  and  the  equipment  been  forthcom- 
ing to  carry  on  worthily  the  campaign  of  the 

*  Greenoiigh  White :  An  Apostle  of  the  Western  Church, 
page  90. 


80  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Church  on  that  great  frontier  when  the  day  of 
opportunity  was  present? 

In  studying  the  land  of  the  lakes  and  rivers 
we  have  concentrated  our  thought  very  largely 

Kemper  a  Type       ^P^^  ^  siuglc  figure,  but  UOt  becaUSO 

he  stands  alone.  Work  of  the  same 
sort  and  under  similar  conditions  was  done  by 
the  bishops  who  followed  him,  some  coming  to 
take  up  portions  of  his  original  territory  and 
others  pressing  farther  on.  Of  Chase  in  Illi- 
nois and  Otey  in  Tennessee  we  have  already 
spoken,  but  Polk  in  Arkansas,  Hawks  in  Mis- 
souri, Upfold  in  Indiana  and  Lee  in  Iowa,  were 
faithful  and  efficient  leaders  in  the  campaign 
of  conquest.  Of  them  the  same  things  were 
true,  to  a  lesser  degree,  which  were  true  of 
their  distinguished  predecessor. 

We  are  reluctantly  compelled  to  admit  that 

the  Church  did  not  fulfil  the  promise  of  her 

srreat  missionary  convention  in  1835. 

Concluding  ^  t  i         •        •  i 

Comments  g^e  made  a  good  begmnmg,  but  per- 

mitted other  considerations  to  paralyze  her 
hands  and  divert  her  attention.  She  sent  out 
her  missionary  bishops,  but  failed  to  back  them 
up.  The  men  and  the  money  were  never  pres- 
ent to  seize  a  tithe  of  the  opportunities  which 
lay  open  to  these  pioneers.  Her  weakness  in 
the  middle  west  to-day  is  the  heritage  of  the 


In  the  Land  of  the  Lakes  and  Rivers    81 

Church's  inertia.  In  some  measure  she  has 
learned  her  lesson — though  not  so  well  as  one 
might  wish. 

The  life  of  Bishop  Kemper  clearly  shows 
that  the  methods  and  the  equipment  available 
and  effective  under  settled  and  stable  condi- 
tions are  impossible  to  be  had  in  the  mission- 
ary work  of  a  new  land.  The  bishop  who  is 
himself  his  greatest  and  most  active  archdea- 
con, a  band  of  itinerant  clergy,  a  willingness 
to  carry  the  Church  and  her  sacraments  to 
places  where  there  is  any  kind  of  roof  to 
cover  them,  or  perchance  not  even  that ;  an  in- 
terested and  cooperating  body  of  Churchmen  at 
the  home  base — are  the  essentials  of  success. 


IV 
THE  MARCH  ACROSS  THE  PRAIRIES 


THE  greatest  event  of  tlie  twenty  years 
following  1860  was  the  discovery  of  tlie 
land  of  the  prairies.  Long  after  prac- 
tically normal  conditions  of  settlement  had 
been  reached  along  the  Mississippi  the  plains 
The  undiB-  which  lay  beyond  it  were  largely  an 
covered  Country     i:indiscovered  country. 

It  is  true  that  Lewis  and  Clark,  sent  by  Pres- 
ident Jefferson,  had  canoed  and  marched  to 
Oregon  in  1804  through  the  country  just  pur- 
chased from  Napoleon,  but  they  were  simply 
following  the  water-way — the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance. It  is  true  that  across  the  plains 
trooped  those  thousands,  presenting  one  of  the 
most  marvellous  spectacles  of  history  as  they 
went  to  exploit  the  gold  lands  of  the  Pacific. 
It  is  true  that  the  great  transcontinental  lines 
pushed  their  gleaming  rails  over  prairie  and 
desert,  but  they  were  only  seeking  the  shortest 
and  easiest  way  to  the  coast.    Cattlemen  began 

82 


iThe  March  Across  the  Prairies        83 

to  pasture  their  great  herds  on  the  plains  from 
which  the  buffalo  had  been  ruthlessly  slaugh- 
ered,  but  to  none  of  these  did  the  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  acres  which  lay  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  mountains  present 
themselves  as  a  home  for  future  millions  and 
a  mine  of  wealth  for  human  need.  Vast  spaces 
therefore  lay  untenanted  except  by  the  roving 
Indian,  who  was  allowed  to  remain  where  no 
one  cared  to  settle,  and  here  the  Church  found 
him  when  she  came  to  win  the  land. 

Even  as  late  as  1870  a  map  was  shown  upon 
which,  across  western  Nebraska  and  Kansas, 
eastern  Montana  and  North  and  South  Dakota, 
where  are  now  the  great  fields  of  wheat  and 
corn  which  feed  a  large  part  of  the  earth's 
population,  was  written  the  legend,  ^ '  The  Great 
American  Desert. '^  When  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific Railway  projected  its  line  toward  Oregon 
a  benevolent  government  assisted  it  by  a  gift 
of  forty  miles  on  either  side  of  its  right-of- 
way — and  doubtless  smiled  behind  its  hand 
after  it  had  signed  the  bond.  What  that  eighty- 
mile  strip,  hundreds  of  miles  long,  is  now 
worth  it  would  take  a  practical  real  estate 
expert  with  a  large  knowledge  of  figures  to 
compute. 

Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri  and  eastern  Kan- 
sas were  early  recognized  as  possible  habitable 
portions  of  the  globe.    People  also  were  known 


84*         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

to  exist  in  Arkansas,  and  of  course  someone 
was  living  in  Texas;  but  in  the  estimation  of 
the  average  eastern  American  these  constituted 
the  utmost  limits  of  civilization,  or  even  of 
sustenation. 

1.  Doubtless  the  discovery  might  have  come 
earlier  had  it  not  been  for  the  engrossing  and 

debilitating  influences  of  the  Civil 
of  Discovery  War.  We  were  too  much  occupied 
in  fighting  out  the  conflict  to  have  time  for  set- 
tlement, even  if  men  could  have  been  spared 
for  the  purpose.  But  with  the  close  of  that 
terrific  struggle  another  great  wave  of  expan- 
sion may  be  said  to  have  begun.  One  cause  of 
this  was  the  war  itself.  Thousands  of  men  re- 
turned to  find  their  places  taken,  or  themselves 
unfit  or  unwilling  to  fill  the  places.  Unrest 
seized  them;  they  had  seen  larger  things  than 
the  narrow  farm  or  village  where  they  were 
born;  they  had  been  men  of  the  march  and  of 
the  camp.  The  government  offered  them  free 
land  in  the  great  West.  They  loved  the  life  of 
adventure,  and  turned  to  it. 

2.  The  transcontinental  railways,  while  not 
devised  for  such  a  purpose,  also  became  the 
promoters  of  settlement.  Large  parts  of  their 
land  grants  were  sold  to  settlers.  Stations 
were  necessary — not  that  people  might  leave  or 
board  trains,  but  that  there  might  be  at  eer- 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies        85 

tain  intervals  a  water-tank  and  a  telegraph 
operator.  Given  the  stations,  the  people  came. 
Wheat  was  sown  by  some  foolhardy  individual 
who  did  not  listen  when  old  farmers  assured 
him  that  the  season  in  that  northern  land  was 
too  short  for  it  to  mature.  They  were  right — 
and  wrong.  They  had  forgotten  that  in  North 
Dakota,  Minnesota  and  Montana  the  sun 
shines  for  seventeen  hours  a  day  in  midsum- 
mer, and  that  wheat  grows  as  long  as  the  sun 
shines  on  it;  and  they  scratched  their  grizzled 
heads  with  astonishment  when  it  developed  that 
the  cold  springs  and  falls  and  the  short  sum- 
mer of  long  sunshine  were  creating  wheat  of 
such  wonderful  quality  that  men  had  to  invent 
a  new  name  by  which  to  classify  it.  ^'Hard 
wheaf  was  the  highest  title  that  had  before 
been  known;  ^^No.  1  Hard''  came  from  the  new 
lands  and  commanded  the  highest  prices. 

3.  To  these  was  added  the  great  impulse  of  a 
foreign  immigration.  The  Civil  War  had  done 
much  to  injure,  but  some  things  to  help  the  na- 
tion. It  had  brought  her  before  the  eye  of  the 
world.  The  abolition  of  slavery  had  proclaimed 
in  the  most  convincing  way  that  America  was 
the  land  of  freedom,  and  the  serf  and  the  peas- 
ant of  Europe  sought  her  out.  Into  the  west  they 
went  by  train  loads ;  the  Scandinavian  and  the 
German,  the  Eussian  and  the  Pole,  the  Lithu- 
anian and  the  Hun — almost  all  the  northern  na- 


86         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

tions  of  Europe  contributing  to  the  great  in- 
coming tide. 

Here,  then,  were  the  elements  of  an  as- 
tounding population,  and  the  land  of  the 
prairies  and  plains  soon  ceased  to  be  the  per- 
quisite of  the  cowboy,  or  the  dreary  pilgrimage 
of  the  traveller  to  the  far  west.  Men  rubbed 
their  eyes  as  they  saw  new  commonwealths 
spring  into  being  in  a  decade,  and  new  states, 
carved  out  of  the  great  wilderness,  knocking 
at  the  door  of  the  Union  and  proving  not  un- 
worthy to  take  their  place  beside  New  York, 
Massachusetts  and  Virginia. 

II 

What  was  the  Church  doing?  Some  begin- 
nings had  early  been  made  in  this  vast  domain. 
„^ ,      ,^       As  far  back  as  1805,  while  Lewis 

what  was  the  ' 

Church  Doing?  ^j^^  Clark  wcrc  making  their  famous 
reconnoissance  through  the  northwest,  the 
Christian  pioneer  and  Churchman,  Philander 
Chase,  was  establishing  far  to  the  south  in 
New  Orleans  the  first  congregation  of  our 
Church  within  the  boundaries  of  the  Louisiana 
Territory — under  the  oversight  of  the  Bishop 
of  New  York ! 

Others  had  followed.  Bishop  Kemper  had 
been  chosen  for  Missouri  as  well  as  Indiana, 
and  had  made  his  first  home  beyond  the    Mis- 


EZEKIEL   G.   GEAR 


JAMES    LLOYD    BRECK 

As    he    looked   while    serving   tn 

Minnesota 


MISSION  HOUSE,   ST.   PAUL,  MINNESOTA,   1850 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies         87 

sissippi.  In  Iowa,  Minnesota  and  parts  of 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  he  had  travelled,  carry- 
ing the  Church's  message.  Bishop  Otey  also 
had  penetrated  the  southern  part  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase.  Leonidas  Polk  had  been 
consecrated  Missionary  Bishop  of  Arkansas,  in 
1838,  but  after  two  years  had  been  transferred 
to  the  Diocese  of  Louisiana.  Tardily  enough 
came  the  missionary  bishops  into  the  land  of 
the  prairies,  and  still  more  tardily  the  men  and 
the  means  to  equip  their  work,  but  never  again 
was  a  great  section  left  to  care  for  itself  as 
best  it  might,  and  discover  if  perchance  there 
were  such  a  thing  as  an  Episcopal  Church. 

Let  us  choose  four  men  as  types  of  all :  Gear, 
the  army  chaplain;  Breck,  the  missionary  edu- 
Pour  Types  cator ;  Whipple,  the  bishop  of  the 
ofLea/ership  races ;  Hare,  the  apostle  to  the 
Indians. 

As  early  as  1839  the  Eev.  E.  G.  Gear,  lovingly 

known  as  Father  Gear,  army  chaplain  at  Fort 

Snelling,  Minnesota,  had  begun  to 

Ezekiel  6.  Gear  ,     .,       ^-,  ,      .  ,         , 

preach  the  Church,  m  season  and  out 
of  season,  to  all  whom  he  could  reach.  Towns 
as  yet  there  were  none,  but  in  scattered  ham- 
lets and  in  the  fort  he  baptized  and  preached 
and  gave  the  sacrament  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. He  writes  with  joy  in  1840:  *^At  our 
last  Communion  fourteen  partook,  among  them 


88         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

a  native  Chippewa" — John  Johnson  Enme- 
gahbowh,  afterward  our  first  Indian  priest. 

For  twenty-seven  years,  during  which  he 
served  under  the  government  in  different  Min- 
nesota forts,  he  was  instant  in  the  service  of 
the  Church;  a  counsellor,  helper  and  friend  of 
Bishop  Kemper  and  his  little  band,  as  also  of 
Bishop  Whipple  and  those  who  aided  him.  In 
1875,  at  the  age  of  eighty  years,  then  the  senior 
presbyter  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States, 
he  was  buried  in  the  soil  of  the  state  for  which 
he  had  done  so  much,  and  in  the  eulogy  which 
Bishop  Whipple  pronounced  on  that  occasion 
he  repeated  these  words  of  the  departed  saint, 
which  were  the  key-note  of  his  life:  ^'We  have 
nothing  to  do  with  results ;  we  must  do  the  work 
for  God,  and  we  shall  find  the  fruit  in  the  resur- 
rection. ' ' 

Somewhere  and  somehow  should  worthily  be 
told  to  the  Church  the  story  of  Ezekiel  G.  Gear, 
army  chaplain.* 

Then,  too,  there  was  James  Lloyd  Breck,  the 
missionary  educator.  His  ten  years  at  Nasho- 
james  Lloyd  ^^^  had  douo  great  things  for  the 
BrMk  Churchmen    of    Wisconsin,    but    in 

some  respects  they  had  brought  disappoint- 
ment to  Breck.    His  plan  of  an  associate  mis- 

*  For  further  details  concerning  the  Church 's  pioneers  in 
Minnesota,  see  Tanner:  History  of  the  Diocese  of  Minne- 
sota, 1857-1907. 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies         89 

sion,  which  was  to  be  practically  a  monastic 
establishment,  had  never  been  fulfilled.  He 
loved  hardship,  and  above  all  things  he  was  a 
pioneer.  Life  grew  too  easy  and  neighbors  too 
near,  and  he  received  permission  from  Bishop 
Kemper  to  found  a  new  associate  mission  in 
the  territory  of  Minnesota. 

Hither  he  came  in  1850,  in  company  with  the 
Eev.  Timothy  Wilcoxson — afterward  through 
long  years  the  well-known  itinerant  missionary 
of  Minnesota — and  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Merrick. 
Landing  June  26th  on  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  St.  Paul,  under  a  spreading  oak  they 
celebrated  the  Holy  Communion.  From  this 
beginning  there  sprung  the  Diocese  of  Minne- 
sota, with  its  conspicuous  ministry  to  the  In- 
dians, and  the  present  splendid  schools  of  the 
Seabury  Foundation — Shattuck,  St.  Mary's  and 
the  Divinity  School. 

Here  he  and  Wilcoxson  repeated  the  labors 
undertaken  by  the  Nashotah  band  of  the  early 
day,  walking  for  hundreds  of  miles  and  min- 
istering to  the  scattered  people,  establishing 
Sunday-schools,  gathering  congregations  and 
encouraging  them  to  erect  log  churches  in 
which  they  might  worship.  The  record  of  the 
first  full  year  of  the  associate  mission  tells  its 
own  story.  The  three  men  had  officiated  in 
seventeen  different  places,  holding  three  hun- 
dred  and   sixty-six    services,    celebrating   the 


90         The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Holy  Communion  sixty  times,  travelling  a  total 
of  6,400  miles,  3,400  of  these  on  foot. 

But  not  content  with  this,  and  moved  by  the 
needs  of  the  unevangelized  Indians  round  about 
him,  Breck  removed  in  1852  and  established 
among  them  the  mission  of  St.  Columba,  at 
Kahgeashkoonsekag  (in  English,  Gull  Lake), 
the  first  church  work  among  the  Mississippi 
Valley  Indians.  Here  was  erected  the  first 
Christian  church  in  Minnesota  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  here  was  laid  the  foundation  upon 
which  Bishop  Whipple  and  Bishop  Hare  built 
up  the  most  successful  work  among  Indians 
ever  undertaken  by  any  Christian  body.  An- 
other mission  station  was  at  Kahsahgawsquah- 
jeomokag,  and  still  another  at  Nigigwaunowah- 
sahgahigaw ! 

Soon  after  this  he  married.  A  change,  in- 
deed, for  the  young  ascetic  who  left  the  semi- 
nary to  found  a  monastic  institution  in  the  far 
west.  But  however  much  he  changed  in  this 
regard,  his  love  of  the  wilderness  and  his  in- 
fatuation for  pioneering  remained.  When  the 
Indian  troubles  compelled  the  temporary 
abandonment  of  the  work  among  them,  he  re- 
turned to  the  associate  mission  and  built  up 
the  schools  in  Faribault. 

But  again  civilization  and  the  quiet  life  were 
coming  too  near.  In  1867  he  moved  on  to  north- 
ern California,  there  to  found  his  third  edu- 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies         91 

cational  institution  at  Benicia,  and  to  fall 
asleep  by  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  Later  his 
body  was  brought  back  to  Nashotah  with  rever- 
ent love,  and  laid  to  rest  beside  that  of  Kem- 
per in  Nashotah 's  hallowed  spot,  amid  the 
thanksgivings  of  the  whole  Church  represented 
in  the  missionary  council  of  1897. 

Around  these  pioneers  others  had  gathered, 
forming  the  band  of  twenty-one,  who,  together 
«. .    «,v.  ,       with    a    lay    representation    from 

Biflhop  Whipple  . 

twenty-one  parishes,  met  in  1859  at 
the  call  of  Bishop  Kemper.  The  outcome  of 
this  convention  was  the  election  of  Henry  Ben- 
jamin Whipple  as  first  Bishop  of  Minnesota. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  a  person  so 
well  known  as  Bishop  Whipple.  Not  only  in 
this  country,  but  throughout  the  Anglican  Com- 
munion, he  had  a  reputation  such  as  few  Amer- 
ican bishops  have  attained.  This  was  in  part 
due  to  his  unique  personality,  his  striking  ap- 
pearance, his  winning  manners,  and  his  loving- 
heart;  but  also  to  the  conspicuous  part  he  took 
in  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  dramatic 
episodes  of  missionary  history — the  evangel- 
ization of  the  Indians. 

His  choice  as  bishop  of  the  new  diocese  was 
utterly  unexpected  both  to  himself  and  to  those 
who  elected  him,  and  in  it  all  were  glad  to 
recognize  the  moving  of  the  Spirit  which  guides 


92  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

the  Church.  For  forty-two  years  he  stood  as  a 
great  figure  in  the  life  of  the  Church  in  the 
west,  and  gathered  about  him  a  remarkable 
band  of  men.  He  was  able  also,  as  few  bishops 
have  been,  to  secure  from  the  Church  the  means 
with  which  to  carry  on  the  great  work  which 
he  had  projected. 

It  would  be  fair  to  characterize  Bishop 
Whipple  as  the  Bishop  of  the  Eaces.  He  was  a 
man  of  unusually  broad  sympathies  and  clear 
vision.  Not  only  did  he  seek  the  wandering 
Churchman,  and  minister  to  the  transplanted 
Easterner.  He  conceived  of  the  Church  as 
capable  of  offering  a  home  to  all  peoples,  of 
whatever  race  or  color.  He  shared  Muhlen- 
berg ^s  ideal  of  her  comprehensiveness,  and 
was  eager  to  bring  her  message  equally  to  the 
men  of  his  own  race  and  traditions,  to  the 
Scandinavian  from  Northern  Europe,  and  to 
the  red  Indian  of  the  prairies,  in  such  a  way  as 
would  win  them  to  her  love.  He  knew  neither 
^^ barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free;  but  Christ 
was  all  and  in  all;"  and  the  Church  was  His 
witness  to  them. 

The  story  of  his  journeys  and  labors  would 
be  a  repetition,  upon  a  smaller  scale,  of  those 
which  we  have  noted  in  the  case  of  Bishop 
Kemper.  His  diocese,  while  not  one-eighth  the 
size  of  the  territory  under  Kemper,  was  rap- 
idly multiplying  its  population,  and  only  the 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies         93 

exercise   of   the   greatest   energy   and   ability 
could  keep  pace  with  its  needs. 

Ill 

The  problems  which  Bishop  Whipple  en- 
countered were  in  the  main  those  of  every 
The  Foreign  bishop  in  a  ncw  land,  but  there  was 
Immigrant  ^|g^  ^^^  foreigu  immigrant — an  ele- 
ment heretofore  unreckoned,  which  now  became 
a  most  important  factor. 

Founded  by  people  from  the  East,  Minnesota 
had  the  transplanted  Easterner  just  as  the 
middle  west  had  had  him  previously.  Some- 
times he  was  the  same  man  moved  a  little  fur- 
ther on.  Dr.  Breck  was  by  no  means  the  only 
one  who  loved  the  outskirts  of  civilization,  or 
who  chose  to  be  always  in  the  advance-guard  of 
the  pioneers.  Sometimes  the  motive  was  a 
love  of  adventure  and  variety,  sometimes  the 
inability  to  succeed  under  settled  and  hum- 
drum conditions;  sometimes  it  was  the  pleas- 
ure of  laying  new  foundations  and  doing  larger 
things. 

But  not  for  long,  if  ever,  was  it  true  that 
the  majority  of  the  population  was  American- 
born.  Minnesota  was  from  the  beginning  a 
Mecca  for  Scandinavians,  particularly  for  the 
Swedes,  and  the  very  earliest  history  of 
the    Church   in    Minnesota   tells    of    work    in 


94  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

their  behalf.  The  records  of  the  associate  mis- 
sion under  Dr.  Breck  speak  in  1851  of  a  service 
for  Norwegians  which  was  held  in  St.  Paul 
every  third  Sunday  night.  In  almost  every 
place  where  a  company  of  worshippers  was 
gathered  communicants  of  the  Swedish  or  Nor- 
wegian Churches  would  be  among  the  number. 
Our  clergy  ministered  to  these  people  as  oc- 
casion offered,  although  it  was  not  until  1874 
that  an  organized  work  began  among  them. 

Thus  we  find  at  this  period  and  throughout 
this  section  a  new  problem  of  adaptation  pre- 
senting itself — that  of  the  foreign  immigrant. 
In  Minnesota,  where  probably  more  than  one- 
half  the  people  were  foreign-born,  and  the  ma- 
jority of  these  foreigners  were  from  Scandi- 
navian nations,  the  question  was  particularly; 
pressing. 

The  Swedes,  because  of  the  similarity  of 
their  religious  customs,  have  always  presented 
a  most  hopeful  opportunity  for  the  Church, 
and  the  diocese  of  Minnesota  has  in  many  ways 
been  a  pioneer  in  this  work.  There  are  to-day 
in  that  diocese  many  parishes,  rural  and  urban, 
which  began  as  Swedish  congregations.  Some 
have  in  course  of  time  and  by  the  logic  of 
events  become  thoroughly  Anglicised;  a  few 
still  conduct  their  services  in  the  Swedish  lan- 
guage and  observe  many  of  the  customs  of  their 
national  Church. 


HENRY   BENJAMIN   WHIPPLE 

First  Bishop  of  Minnesota,  1859-1901 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies         95 

The  closest  point  of  contact  with  foreigners 
is  through  the  children — in  social  work  or  Sun- 
The  Point  day-school.  Particularly  is  this  true 

of  Contact  amoug  pcoplc  who,  like  the  Swedish 

Church  and  the  Lutherans,  have  preserved  in 
some  form  the  practice  of  confirmation.  A 
great  opportunity  offers  for  the  Church  to 
bring  this  gift  to  the  children  in  a  language 
which  has  become  their  own.  Many  parishes 
in  Minnesota,  where  faithful  Sunday-school 
work  has  been  done,  careful  confirmation  in- 
struction given  and  young  communicants  fol- 
lowed up,  count  to-day  among  their  best  mem- 
bers scores  of  Scandinavian  birth.  The  same 
thing  is  measurably  true  in  other  places 
throughout  the  West  where  Lutherans  have 
been  reached  at  this  critical  period. 

Such  work  cannot  be  easily  treated  as  a 
separate  and  distinct  phase  of  missionary  en- 
deavor. It  was  not  usually  the  purpose  to  es- 
tablish coordinate  congregations,  but  to  employ 
the  regular  parochial  machinery,  coupled  with 
the  peculiar  attractiveness  of  the  Church's 
faith,  liturgy  and  order,  to  win  these  foreign- 
ers to  feel  that  the  Church  was  their  home,  and 
to  make  of  them  integral  parts  of  her  congre- 
gations. Thus  the  Swedish  work  in  time  be- 
came an  English  work,  and  the  statistics  of  its 
growth  soon  merge  with  those  of  parochial 
advance.     It  does,   however,   suggest   certain 


96  THe  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

general   lines   of   action  which   apply   to    the 
problem  of  the  foreign  immigrant  elsewhere. 

The  experience  gathered  in  the  Swedish 
work,  while  not  absolutely  applicable  to  the 
The  Attitude  caso  of  all  foreign  peoples,  is  at 
of  the  Foreigner  ^^ast  measurably  so,  and  may  be 
stated  thus: 

(1)  The  first  generation,  born  abroad  and 
emigrating  to  America,  are  not  as  a  rule  dis- 
posed to  ally  themselves  with  the  American 
Church  as  usually  presented  to  them.  Lan- 
guage and  customs  constitute  a  natural  bar  to 
intermingling.  Many  of  these  peoples  are  par- 
ticularly clannish,  and  in  religious  matters 
above  all  others  men  are  loth  to  change. 

(2)  The  second  generation,  including  the 
young  people  who  have  come  to  this  country 
at  an  early  age  or  have  been  born  here,  unless 
they  have  been  taken  in  hand  very  strongly  by 
their  elders,  manifest  a  decided  unwillingTiess 
to  belong  to  a  foreign  Church — that  is,  to  one 
in  which  the  ministrations  are  not  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue.  They  wish  to  be  American  in  their 
religion  as  well  as  in  the  other  customs  of  their 
lives.. 

(3)  The  attractiveness  of  the  Church,  if 
rightly  presented,  is  stronger  with  many  of  the 
European  people  than  the  appeal  made  by 
other  types  of  American  Christianity. 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies        97 

Minnesota  in  the  '60s  and  '70s  was  feeling 
only  the  first  pressure  of  this  problem.  The 
A  Far-Reaehing  tides  of  immigration  which  then 
Problem  flowcd  SO  naturally  toward  the  free 

and  open  lands  of  the  west  have  set  backward 
upon  the  east,  and  at  the  same  time  the  flood 
has  enormously  increased.  Four  are  coming 
now  where  one  came  during  that  former  period ; 
and  they  are  not  scattering  themselves  upon 
the  farm  lands  of  the  west  to  be  quickly  ab- 
sorbed and  Americanized.  New  York  and  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  New  England  are 
being  inundated.  More  than  a  million  a  year 
pass  within  our  gates,  and  nearly  three-quar- 
ters of  these  remain  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 
Our  factories  and  mines  are  a  babel  of  foreign 
tongues,  and  in  our  great  cities  are  localities 
as  utterly  foreign  in  character  and  speech  as 
though  they  had  been  cut  bodily  out  of  Naples 
or  Moscow,  Athens  or  Prague.  Only  the 
buildings  once  inhabited  by  Americans  remain 
— and  the  occasional  policeman;  all  else  is  of 
the  land  whence  they  came.  Here  live  men  and 
women  who  for  half  a  lifetime  have  not  gone 
beyond  the  borders  of  their  colony,  nor  heard 
the  English  tongue  except  from  their  children 
as  they  returned  from  school. 

The  winning  of  these  people  to  our  Ameri- 
canism and  our  Christianity  is  an  overwhelm- 
ing task,  but  for  that  reason  it  all  the  more 


98  The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

needs  to  be  done.  What  they  brought  with 
them  of  education  and  religion  is,  as  a  rule,  not 
enough  to  meet  their  needs  in  a  new  life  of 
added  responsibility  and  enlarged  opportunity. 
And  even  if  these  newcomers  are  satisfied, 
their  children  will  not  be. 

Who  is  to  lead  and  guide  and  help?  Has 
the  Church  which  likes  to  speak  and  think  of 
herself  as  peculiarly  ^Hhe  American  Church" 
any  conspicuous  part  to  play  in  the  social  and 
spiritual  training  of  these  new  Americans? 
In  many  a  diocese  and  parish  earnest  and  ef- 
fective work  is  being  done,  but  not  every  bishop 
and  priest  has  Bishop  Whipple's  vision,  or 
thinks  of  the  foreigner  whom  he  passes  on  the 
street  as  one  whom  he  has  been  sent  to  win. 
Most  of  us  see  only  an  alien  for  whom  the 
Church  can  have  no  message,  either  because 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  religion  which  he 
already  possesses  is  sufficient  for  him,  or  be- 
cause the  Church  can  no  longer  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  Pentecost.  Bishop  Whipple  did  not 
so  believe,  nor  did  Minnesota's  experience  so 
indicate. 

This  whole  matter  of  the  stranger  within  our 
gates  is  a  challenge  to  our  faith  in  humanity 
and  our  conception  of  the  Church.  Its  vital 
relation  to  the  extension  of  Christ's  Kingdom, 
and  to  this  nation  as  a  factor  in  that  extension, 
would  amply  justify  a  more  prolonged  con- 


Bishop  Whipple  and  Enmegahhowh  at  the  door 
of  St.  Columba's  Church,   White  Earth 


FIRST  BUILDING  OF  THE   SEABURY  MISSION 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies        99 

sideration.  But  encountering  it  here  in  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  as  we  march  with  the 
Church  toward  the  western  sea,  we  can  only 
tarry  to  trace  its  broad  outlines  for  those  men 
and  women  who  own  Christ  as  Lord,  and  who 
seek  to  find  and  serve  Him  in  those  whom  He 
is  not  ashamed  to  call  His  brethren.* 

Bishop  Whipple  also  nobly  strove  to  solve 
the  problem  of  a  people  who  are  in  the  truest 
The  Problem  scnso  uativo  Americans,  and  yet,  to 
of  the  Indian  ^^^  jjiodcs  of  life,  alicus  and  for- 
eigners— the  North  American  Indians. 

The  problem  of  the  Indian  differs  from  any 
other  in  many  respects : 

(1)  It  deals  with  a  people  inferior,  not  in 
characteristics,  ability  or  religious  understand- 
ing, but  in  civil  rights  and  privileges  and  the 
estimate  which  popular  opinion  has  placed 
upon  them. 

(2)  It  is  the  ministration  of  the  conqueror 
to  the  conquered — always  a  difficult  matter. 

(3)  It  is  complicated  everywhere  by  govern- 
ment control,  and  the  question  as  to  how  far 
government  officials  may  or  will  cooperate  for 
religious  ends. 

(4)  It  cannot  result  in  the  formation  of  a  ra- 
cial branch  of  the  Church,  and  it  is  scarcely 

*  Those  who  wish  to  follow  this  subject  further  will  find 
Aliens  or  Americans,  by  Dr.  Howard  B.  Grose,  an  excellent 
text  book. 


100        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

possible  that  congregations  formed  among  these 
people  can  become  entirely  self-supporting. 

(5)  It  is,  nevertheless,  in  a  peculiar  sense  a 
duty  and  an  act  of  justice  to  those  from  whom 
much  has  been  taken,  that  at  least  we  shall  give 
them  the  Christian  message. 

Something  was  done  in  Colonial  days  by  the 
S.  P.  G.  among  the  Indians  of  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board. Later,  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  the  indefatigable  Bishop  Hobart 
undertook  work  among  the  Iroquois  resident 
in  his  diocese,  the  fruits  of  which  have  con- 
tinued to  this  day.  When,  in  1823,  the  Oneida 
tribe  was  removed  to  its  reservation  in  North- 
ern Wisconsin,  there  went  with  them  a  priest 
of  the  Church  who  was  no  doubt  a  native  Iro- 
quois, but  who  believed  himself,  and  was 
believed  by  others  to  be  Louis  XVII,  the  lost 
Dauphin.*  In  the  midst  of  the  reservation 
where  2,400  of  these  Indians  live  to-day  there 
stands  a  great  stone  church  named  in  memory 
of  Bishop  Hobart,  with  a  communicant  roll  ex- 
ceeding five  hundred. 

But  it  remained  for  Bishop  Whipple — and 
even  more  for  Bishop  Hare,  who  inherited  a 
Bishop  Whipple's  large  portion  of  the  task — to  build 
EnV°*^'      up,    to    the    lasting    honor    of    the 

*  For  life  of  Eleazar  Williams  see  The  Oneidas,  by  J.  K, 
Bloomfield,  page  145  and  following. 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies       101 

Church,  the  most  successful  work  among  In- 
dians which  this  country  has  seen.  Bishop 
Whipple  has  often  heen  called  the  Apostle  to 
the  Indians.  That  title  more  properly  belongs 
to  Bishop  Hare,  but  Bishop  Whipple  did  for 
them  what  few  men  could  have  done,  and  what 
then  needed  doing.  He  was  the  Champion  of 
the  Indians  in  a  time  of  stress  and  trial  when, 
misunderstood  and  abused,  they  were  goaded 
to  an  outbreak  of  rebellion  which,  but  for  the 
Bishop  of  Minnesota  and  other  peacemakers 
like  himself,  might  have  led  to  the  practical  ex- 
termination of  many  tribes  and  the  still  deeper 
disgrace  of  our  nation. 

The  abandonment  of  the  work  begun  by  Dr. 
Breck  at  Gull  Lake,  and  the  Indian  outbreak 
which  followed,  threatened  for  a 
In  Dark  Days  ^.^^  ^^  queuch  the  spark  of  Chris- 
tianity which  had  begun  to  glow  among  them. 
It  was  in  these  dark  days  after  the  first  begin- 
nings and  during  the  first  discouragements, 
that  our  first  Chippewa  priest,  Enmegahbowh, 
proved  of  what  sterling  stuff  his  Christianity 
was  made.  In  these  trying  times  he  was  a 
tower  of  strength  to  his  own  people  and  to  the 
bishop,  and  was  largely  instrumental  in  saving 
the  Indian  work  from  annihilation.  But  the 
praise  does  not  belong  to  him  alone;  White 
Fisher,  Good  Thunder,  Wabasha  and  Taopi, 
with  scores  of  others,  showed  how  real  was 


102        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

tlieir  Christianity;  many  suffered  persecution 
and  death  at  the  hands  of  their  savage  tribes- 
men. In  the  Sioux  massacre  of  1862,  when  the 
withdrawal  of  the  troops,  the  indiscriminate 
sale  of  liquor  and  the  non-fulfilment  of  govern- 
ment promises,  let  loose  the  flame  of  savage 
war  on  the  Minnesota  border,  Christian  In- 
dians stood  faithful  to  their  pledges,  warning 
the  missionaries  and  settlers,  and  unquestion- 
ably saving  the  lives  of  hundreds.  *'The  only 
gleam  of  light  on  the  darkness  of  this  un- 
paralleled outbreak,'^  says  Bishop  Whipple, 
*4s  that  not  one  of  the  Indians  connected  with 
our  mission  was  concerned  in  it.  It  is  due  to 
their  fidelity  that  the  captives  were  saved. '^ 

But  the  shadow  passed  and  a  noble  work  was 
built  up  in  Minnesota,  with  which  were  asso- 
ciated such  honored  names  as  those 

The  Shadow 

Passes  of  the  Ecv.  E.  Steele  Peake,  the  Eev. 

Samuel  D.  Hinman,  and  the  Eev.  J.  A.  Gilfillan. 
These  and  others  gave  themselves  unreservedly 
to  their  red  brothers,  and  achieved  the  success 
which  is  certain  to  come,  in  some  way  or  an- 
other, to  those  who  love  much. 

The  Indian  work  conducted  under  Bishop 
Whipple  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
entire  country  and  became  known  abroad.  He 
exerted  a  far-reaching  influence,  and  his  ad- 
vocacy protected  and  uplifted  tribes  which  he 
never  saw.    Not  only  in  his  own  diocese,  but 


WILLIAM   HOBART   HARE 

Bishop  of  Niobrara  and  South  Dakota,  187;}-1909 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies       103 

in  general  societies  and  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  he  was  always  the  champion  and  de- 
fender of  his  red  brethren,  and  with  them  his 
name  will  be  forever  associated. 

Those  who  were  privileged  to  attend  the 
funeral  of  Bishop  Whipple,  in  September,  1901, 
will  long  remember  the  presence  there  of  the 
Indian  deputations,  their  profound  grief  at  the 
loss  of  the  great  man  who  had  stood  as  their 
friend  through  so  many  years,  and  the  sweet 
pathos  of  the  hynm  sung  in  the  Indian  language 
beside  the  open  grave  where  these,  peculiarly 
his  mourners,  gathered  nearest  to  utter  the 
expression   of  their  love. 

The  temptation  is  great  to  tell  the  story  of 
the  further  work  in  Minnesota  and  of  the  pio- 
neers who  accomplished  it  under  the  leadership 
of  Bishop  Whipple,  and  his  well-loved  coadju- 
tor. Bishop  Gilbert.  Something  of  its  character 
and  flavor  the  reader  will  find  in  the  books 
which  have  been  prepared  to  accompany  this 
course.  We  must  now  confine  ourselves  to  a 
consideration  of  the  second  peculiar  problem 
of  this  region — the  evangelization  of  the  In- 
dian tribes,  as  carried  out  by  Bishop  Hare. 

IV 

When,  as  a  result  of  the  Indian  outbreak  and 
the  serious  conditions  brought  on  by  the  Civil 


104        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Niobrara  and  War,  the  govemmeiit  removed  large 
its  Bishop  bodies    of  the   Indians   out   of  the 

state  of  Minnesota,  Bishop  Whipple's  heart 
and  prayers  went  with  them.  He  could  not  for- 
get that  they  had  been  and  were  still  peculiarly 
his  children,  and  in  large  measure  through 
his  influence  the  Indian  missionary  district  of 
Niobrara  was  created  by  the  General  Conven- 
tion of  1868.  To  it  Bishop  Whipple  was 
elected,  but  he  felt  that  he  must  decline  this 
honor  and  remain  at  his  post  in  Minnesota.  It 
was  then  that  the  Church  called  to  be  Bishop 
of  Niobrara  the  last  of  the  men  upon  whom 
in  this  chapter  we  are  fixing  our  attention, 
William  Hobart  Hare,  at  that  time  the  young 
secretary  of  the  Foreign  Committee  of  the 
Board  of  Missions  in  New  York. 

This  action  of  the  Church  was  most  signifi- 
cant. It  was  the  first  and  only  instance  of  a 
The  Choice  of  i^^cial  opiscopatc — that  is,  the  con- 
BishopHare  socratiou  of  a  bishop  for  a  distinct 
race  of  people  rather  than  as  the  administrator 
of  a  certain  territory  and  the  spiritual  father 
of  all  the  people  therein.  Personally  consid- 
ered it  was  also  a  most  unusual  choice  which 
had  been  made.  Great  was  the  regret  ex- 
pressed by  the  friends  of  Bishop  Hare.  He 
was  distinctly  a  man  of  fineness  and  cultiva- 
tion,  peculiarly   fitted  to   take   an   honorable 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies       105 

place  in  an  intricate  and  highly  organized 
civilization.  Possessed  of  scholarly  tastes  and 
in  the  best  sense  a  man  of  the  world — because 
he  was  also  a  man  of  another  world — many  felt 
that  he  was  being  sacrificed  needlessly.  It  is 
recorded  that  one  of  the  bishops,  as  he  left  the 
meeting  where  the  choice  was  made,  exclaimed : 
*^The  Church  is  always  making  the  mistake  of 
setting  her  finest  men  to  do  her  commonest 
work !  She  is  continually  using  a  razor  to  split 
kindling. ' ' 

Yet  how  his  record  refuted  all  these  predic- 
tions and  forebodings!  From  the  beginning 
he  became  a  father  in  God  to  his  red  children, 
touching  their  hearts  and  influencing  their  lives 
as  no  other  man  has  ever  done,  and  writing  by 
his  activities  one  of  the  stirring  pages  of  the 
Church's  missionary  history. 

On  arriving  at  his  jurisdiction  the  new 
bishop  found  that  in  the  area  of  80,000  square 
miles  which  his  field  included  there  were  in 
all  nine  stations  and  two  sub-stations.  These 
he  set  out  to  visit,  travelling  in  frontier  fashion 
over  the  broad  expanse  of  the  prairies.  Sit- 
ting on  a  roll  of  shawls  by  the  side  of  his  little 
tent,  as  his  Indians  were  making  a  camp  for 
the  night,  he  wrote  to  some  friends  in  the  East : 
**  There  is  not  a  human  being  except  our  own 
little  party  within  forty  miles.  The  sun  has 
just  gone  down.    The  twilight  is  fast  creeping 


106        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

on.  There  is  no  sound  except  the  howling  of 
a  pack  of  prairie  wolves.  It  is  a  time  to  think, 
and  thinking,  my  thoughts  turn  to  you,  and  it 
occurs  to  me  that  you  will  want  to  hear  of  the 
Indian  schools  which  you  are  helping  to  sup- 
port.'^ 

This  last  sentence  gives  the  key-note  of  the 
bishop's  labors.  He  realized  supremely  the 
value  of  a  Christian  education  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  race. 

Travelling  thus  across  the  broad  prairies, 
ministering  sympathetically  and  affectionately 
The  Princi  les  ^^  thcsc  primitive  people,  the  con- 
ofHiaWork  gpicuous  succcss  which  he  achieved 
was  largely  due  to  two  facts:  First,  that  the 
aroused  conscience  of  the  Church  brought  him 
the  means  with  which  to  do  his  work;  secondly, 
that  he  had  grasped  clearly  certain  funda- 
mental principles  of  action : 

(a)  He  saw  that  the  children  must  be  taught, 
and  through  them  their  parents.  The  hope  of 
the  Indian  lay  in  the  right  sort  of  education. 
The  buffalo  was  gone;  the  forests  were  going; 
the  lands  had  been  seized  upon;  the  nomadic 
life  of  the  tribes  was  no  longer  possible.  How- 
ever unwelcome  it  might  be  to  them,  they  must 
live  under  the  white  man's  conditions  if  they 
were  to  live  at  all.  Therefore  they  must  be 
able  to  meet  him  with  some  measure  of  equal 


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The  March  Across  the  Prairies       107 

understanding  and  information.  The  great 
success  of  the  boarding  schools  established  by 
Bishop  Hare,  and  still  continued  by  his  suc- 
cessor, grew  out  of  the  great  need  which  they 
alone  could  meet. 

(b)    Again,   Bishop   Hare   realized  how  in- 
jurious to  the  Indian  character  had  been  their 
position  as  wards  under  tutelage,  fed  by  the 
hand  of  the  government.    It  was  sapping  their 
independence  and  making  them  mere  beggars 
and  hangers-on.    A  like  pernicious  system  had 
been   followed   by   several   religious   teachers 
among  them.    The  Indians  were  expected  to  do 
nothing  and  to  receive  everything.    Their  cus- 
tom of  exchanging  gifts,  which  had  its  attrac- 
tive significance  and  proper  place,  had  been 
made  use  of  by  those  who  desired  to  buy  their 
allegiance,  and  in  many  a  Christian  mission  it 
was  taken  for  granted  that  the  Indians  were 
to  be  cajoled  and  treated  as  children  rather 
than  trained  as  men.    The  last  thing  to  be  ex- 
pected was  that  they  should  support  themselves 
or  give  to  others — which  way  of  thinking  con- 
tinues even  to  this  day.    Against  this  Bishop 
Hare  set  his  face.     He  did  much  for  the  In- 
dians; he  gave  them  many  gifts;  he  supplied 
their  crying  needs,  but  he  taught  them  to  be 
self-respecting,   independent  and  responsible, 
to  give  as  they  were  able,  and  to  look  forward 
to  still  larger  exercise  of  that  which  to  the 


108       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Indian  is  joy  and  not  grief — the  pleasure  of 
bestowing. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  of  the  25,000  In- 
dians resident  in  South  Dakota  over  10,000 
were  baptized  members  of  our  Church.  There 
were  nearly  100  Indian  congregations,  26  na- 
tive clergy,  over  4,000  communicants,  and  the 
gifts  of  these  red  men  of  the  plains,  in  pro- 
portion to  their  ability,  were  greatly  in  excess 
of  the  white  man's  record. 

After  thirty-seven  years  of  service,  by  a 
most  painful  path  of  disease  and  suffering. 
Death  of  Bishop  Haro  passed  to  his  reward. 

Bishop  Hare  jjig  body  rcsts  iu  the  land  to  which 
he  went  as  a  stranger,  but  his  work  goes  on, 
and  in  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  our  red 
brethren,  next  to  the  Master  whom  they  serve, 
is  enshrined  the  memory  of  him  who  gave  him- 
self so  unreservedly  for  them,  and  lifted  them 
out  of  darkness  into  light. 

The  issue  of  this  great  life  of  loving  heroism 
and  joyful  sacrifice  proved  the  truth  of  certain 
missionary  principles:  (a)  That  the  best  is 
none  too  good  for  the  mission  field,  and  no  man 
can  be  either  too  fine  or  too  wise  to  carry  the 
message  of  the  Gospel  to  any  people,  no  mat- 
ter how  rude  and  savage,  (b)  That  no  race  is 
so  ignorant  or  hopeless  but  that  it  may  be 


The  March  Across  the  Prairies      109 

raised  up  by  faithfulness,  devotion,  Christian 
sympathy  and  the  example  of  a  saintly  life, 
(c)  That  the  Christian  education  of  the 
younger  generation  and  the  presentation  of  the 
Gospel  by  the  lips  of  their  own  people  are  the 
two  greatest  avenues  of  approach  to  the  heart 
and  life  of  a  race. 

In  telling  of  his  work  among  the  Indians  we 
have  only  touched  a  part  of  this  fine  life.  With 
the  admission  of  South  Dakota  as  a  state  the 
Indian  district  of  Niobrara  disappeared;  the 
missionary  district  of  South  Dakota  was  estab- 
lished and  Bishop  Hare  was  placed  in  regular 
charge  of  both  the  white  and  Indian  work. 
After  this  his  activities  proceeded  along  lines 
common  to  other  missionary  bishops,  and 
among  the  incoming  settlers  he  found  a  great 
opportunity  to  render  service  to  his  Master, 
and  plant  the  Church  among  the  growing  com- 
munities of  a  great  state;  but  the  story  of 
these  successes  we  may  not  now  tell.  Their 
history  was  in  a  large  measure  that  of  other 
pioneer  work  in  the  new  West. 

Here  we  must  conclude  our  study  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  with  its  two  peculiar 
problems — the  foreign  immigrant  and  the 
American  Indian.  Everywhere  these  are  to  be 
found,  but  they  were  particularly  the  burden 


110       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

of  those  days  when  the  tide  of  settlement 
flowed  over  the  land  of  the  prairies,  and  when 
God  raised  up  men  such  as  those  whose  lives 
we  have  been  studying^  to  aid  in  the  solution 
of  these  problems. 


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CT! 

THE  BATTLE  AMONG  THE  MOUNTAINS 

OUT  in  the  centre  of  Nebraska,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Platte  Eiver,  two  hundred 
miles  west  of  where  it  enters  the  Mis- 
souri, there  rose,  soon  after  the  Mexican  War, 
an  army  post  called  Fort  Kearney.    One  day 

The  Great  ^^  ^^^  spriug  of  1849  a  seutiuel  of 

Barrier  |-]^^|.  -^qj.^  g^^  Creeping  up  the  valley 

from  the  eastward  a  curious  white  speck.  An- 
other followed,  and  still  another.  They  were 
** prairie  schooners'^ — the  white-covered  emi- 
grant wagons  which  marked  the  beginning  of 
the  gold  rush  to  California — that  stampede  of 
humanity  which  beat  a  trail  deep  into  the  prai- 
ries and  strewed  the  passage  across  the  plains 
with  the  wrecks  of  a  marching  host.  It  swept 
the  buffalo  from  their  grazing  grounds  and 
effectually  overawed  the  lurking  Indians,  stop- 
ping for  nothing,  except  perchance  to  bury  its 
dead  in  their  desert  graves,  as  it  rolled  on- 
ward toward  the  Land  of  Gold. 

For  years  this  was  typical  of  the  history  of 
much  of  this  section.    It  was  a  territory  to  be 

111 


112        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

gotten  over,  and  its  mountains  a  barrier  to  be 
broken  tbrougli  as  speedily  as  possible.  It 
was,  in  popular  estimation,  and  largely  in  fact, 
a  desert  land,  concerning  which  those  who  over- 
passed it  thought  not  at  all,  except  to  fret  that 
there  was  so  much  of  it.  Indeed,  for  a  dozen 
years  after  California  and  Oregon  had  made 
their  name  and  attracted  their  scores  of  thou- 
sands, the  great  land  east  of  them  was  left 
chiefly  to  the  roving  Indian,  the  hunter  or  the 
herdsman. 


The  Eocky  Mountain  region  is  not  homo- 
geneous either  in  character  or  history.  The 
The  Rocky  southom  part  was  for  many  genera- 

Mountain  Region   ^^^^^  uudcr  thc  domiuiou  of  Spain, 

and  the  section  upon  which  our  interest  will 
chiefly  be  concentrated  lies  within  that  third 
domain  of  territorial  expansion — the  Spanish 
grants  of  1848.  But  to  the  north  it  formed  the 
eastern  part  of  the  Oregon  country,  claimed 
both  by  England  and  ourselves.  Unusually  di- 
versified in  character  and  climate,  it  has  also 
been  composite  in  its  population.  It  has  al- 
ways been  in  some  sense  the  home  of  the  pe- 
culiar peoples. 

Eoughly  speaking,  it  may  be  said  to  begin 
west  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Arkansas  Rivers, 
where  the  land,  though  still  in  the  nature  of  a 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     113 

plain,  is  rising  steadily  to  form  the  foothills 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  We  shall  look  west- 
ward across  the  mountains  into  the  great  basin 
between  the  Rockies  and  the  Coast  Ranges, 
thus  including  Montana,  Idaho  and  Wyoming, 
Western  Colorado,  Utah  and  Nevada,  Arizona 
and  New  Mexico. 

1.  Its  aridity.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  this  section  would  be  among  the  first 
Its  Chief  chosen  as  a  land  for  building  homes. 
Characteristics  Throughout  the  greater  part  of  it 
the  scanty  rainfall  had  failed  to  awaken  the 
fertile  forces  of  nature  which  lay  hidden  in  the 
soil.  Its  vast  plains  were  practically  treeless ; 
its  mountains  rugged  and  forbidding;  its  cli- 
mate, to  say  the  least,  strenuous.  There  were, 
of  course,  along  many  of  its  rivers  and  in  the 
great  plateaus  of  the  mountains,  fair  and  fer- 
tile spots,  but  it  was  as  a  whole  almost  too 
grand  and  forbidding  to  arouse  at  first  sight 
the  interest  of  those  who  sought  a  land  to  dwell 
in,  where  they  might  plant  a  civilization  and 
acquire  wealth. 

2.  Its  extent.  Its  very  vastness  was  a  dif- 
ficulty. One  must  learn  to  love  the  stupendous 
outreach  of  the  desert  or  the  up-flung  crests 
of  the  mountains.  Those  who  had  come  from 
smaller  things  and  narrower  surroundings  felt 
it  hard  at  first  to  live  with  so  much  grandeur. 
They  would  perhaps   echo  the  words  of  the 


114       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

little  child  who,  in  travelling  with  her  mother 
along  one  of  our  transcontinental  railways, 
after  having  gazed  for  hours  at  the  passing 
landscape,  turned  and  said:  ^^Mama,  why  do 
you  s'pose  God  made  such  a  lot  of  room  with 
nothing  in  it?" 

The  reader  of  these  pages,  though  perhaps 
a  graduate  of  some  noted  college  or  university, 
is  not  likely  to  have  really  conceived  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  region  at  which  we  are  looking. 
Some  comparisons  will  be  illuminating:  Mon- 
tana, which  was  only  a  part  of  the  original  jur- 
isdiction of  Bishop  Tuttle,  has  143,000  square 
miles — that  is  to  say,  one  could  make  out  of 
it  thirty-eight  Connecticuts  or  three  New 
Yorks.  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  over  which 
for  many  years  we  asked  one  bishop  to  travel 
as  our  representative,  has  236,000  square  miles 
— equal  to  five  Pennsylvanias.  When  the  good 
bishop  wished  to  go  by  rail  from  the  northeast- 
ern to  the  southwestern  corner  of  his  district 
he  travelled  934  miles — the  distance  from  New 
York  to  Chicago.  Then  there  is  Texas.  You 
could  put  oM  the  population  of  the  world  into 
the  State  of  Texas  and  there  would  not  be  ten 
people  to  the  acre!  Nor  have  we  said  any- 
thing at  all  about  Utah  and  Nevada,  Idaho  and 
Wyoming,  Colorado  and  Nebraska  and  Kansas, 
North  and  South  Dakota !  Yes,  the  Great  West 
is  at  least  great  in  size. 


THE  REVEREND    ST.   MICHAEL  FACKLER 

Our  first  missionary  in  Oregon  and  Idaho 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     115 

3.  Its  resources.  As  we  now  know  it  is 
great  also  in  its  possibilities.  The  man  of  the 
range  who  dotted  with  his  herds  of  cattle  and 
sheep  the  plains  left  bare  by  the  slaughtered 
buffalo,  found  it  great — as  many  a  modern  for- 
tune testifies.  The  prospector  and  miner,  as 
the  ebb-tide  rolled  back  again  from  California, 
found  in  its  gold  and  silver  and  copper  an  allur- 
ing opportunity,  and  the  end  of  these  is  not  yet. 
The  hunter  and  the  trapper  and  the  tourist  dis- 
covered its  wealth  of  forests  and  game,  its  Big 
Horn  Mountains  and  Salmon  Kiver,  its  Yel- 
lowstone Park  and  Grand  Canyon,  the  ancient 
pueblos  of  the  prehistoric  races,  and  the  still 
more  ancient  mountains  reared  by  the  Cre- 
ator's hand.    It  was  a  great  country  to  visit! 

Nor  was  it  long  before  stalwart  and  hopeful 
men  found  it  a  great  country  in  which  to  live. 
Locked  up  in  the  soil  there  were  in- 
irrigation  exhaustible    treasures    of    fertility. 

The  lush  grasses  and  the  exuberant  vegetation 
along  its  streams  proved  this.  In  fertile  spots 
agricultural  settlements  began;  creeping  out 
ever  more  and  more  into  the  surrounding  des- 
ert; cutting  short  the  lucrative  but  somewhat 
lawless  life  of  the  ranchmen,  and  planting  cen- 
tres of  civilization.  Soon  it  was  realized  that 
the  most  forbidding  of  the  land  needed  only- 
water  to  be  transformed,  and  before  long  the 


116       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

stern  mountains  which  had  added  only  grand- 
eur to  the  landscape  were  called  upon  to  supply 
this  great  necessity.  The  day  of  irrigation  had 
hegun. 

Later  on  we  shall  turn  our  attention — not  with 
unqualified  praise — to  the  Mormons,  but  here  we 
The  First  ^^^  make  acknowledgment  of  their 

Serious  Settlement  gervico  as  pioucers  iu  the  far  west. 
They  first  demonstrated  that  it  was  a  land  to 
be  lived  in,  trooping  across  the  prairies  under 
the  lead  of  that  indomitable,  shrewd,  somewhat 
unscrupulous  leader  of  men,  Brigham  Young. 
In  1847,  before  Mexico  ceded  the  land  to  us, 
they  settled  in  a  desert  valley  of  Utah,  and 
made  it,  through  their  industry  and  the  far- 
seeing  sagacity  of  their  leaders,  a  very  garden 
of  Eden  for  pleasantness.  With  all  its  unde- 
sirable and  repugnant  features  Mormonism  set 
the  men  of  the  West  a  conspicuous  example. 

II 

Doubtless  we  should  place  first  among  the 
leaders  of  the  Church  in  this  section  Leonidas 
Church  Work  Po^k,  the  soldicr-bishop,  standing 
in  the  Region  j2ext  to  Jacksou  Kemper  in  the  great 
line  of  domestic  missionary  bishops  and  con- 
secrated for  Arkansas  and  the  Southwest  in 
1838.  After  three  years'  service  in  that  field 
he  was  transferred  to  Louisiana,  and  died  as 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     117 

a  general  in  the  Confederate  Army,  fighting 
at  the  battle  of  Pine  Mountain.  In  1844,  while 
Bishop  Kemper  was  laying  his  foundations  in 
the  North,  Bishop  Freeman  was  sent  in  suc- 
cession to  Bishop  Polk,  to  Arkansas  and  the 
Southwest.  But  the  field  was  a  hard  one  and 
even  his  faithful  tillage,  which  closed  with  his 
death  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War,  produced 
little  in  the  way  of  material  results.  The  foun- 
dations which  he  laid  seemed  to  be  swept  away 
in  the  strife  that  followed. 

Meanwhile,  to  the  northward,  small  begin- 
nings had  been  made  in  various  places.  Ne- 
Bishop  braska,  the  great  point  of  departure 

J.  c.  Talbot  ^Qj.  ^agon  trains  to  California,  wliich 
on  their  march  traversed  the  entire  length  of  the 
state,  had  become  recognized  as  an  effective 
centre  for  work.  Thither  in  1860  the  Church  had 
sent  Joseph  C.  Talbot,  who  inherited  the  title  of 
Missionary  Bishop  of  the  Northwest,  which 
Bishop  Kemper  had  laid  down  the  year  before, 
and  with  it  the  remainder  of  that  Northwest 
which  had  been  nominally  under  his  charge. 

What  a  remainder  it  was !  Nebraska,  North 
and  South  Dakota,  Montana,  Wyoming  and 
Idaho,  Colorado  and  Utah,  New  Mexico,  Ari- 
zona, and  Nevada ;  altogether  a  diocese  of  about 
a  million  square  miles.  Bishop  Talbot  went  to 
the  West  as  a  sort  of  ecclesiastical  residuary 
legatee.    To  him  was  assigned  ^^all  the  terri- 


118       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

tory  within  the  United  States  not  emhraced 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  some  other  bishop," 
and  he  nsed  laughingly  to  call  himself  '^The 
Bishop  of  All  Outdoors." 

Promptly  he  paid  a  visit  to  Nebraska  and 
Dakota,  and  was  planning  a  long  journey  to 
Salt  Lake  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out  and 
prevented  him.  Taking  advantage  however  of 
a  temporary  quiet  in  that  troubled  region,  in 
1863  he  made  a  tremendous  tour  of  7,000  miles 
through  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Utah  and  Ne- 
vada. Here  he  was  greatly  oppressed  by  the 
growth  of  Mormonism.  Thousands  of  converts 
from  the  British  Isles  crossed  the  plains  every 
year.  They  were,  he  says,  ^^firm  in  the  faith 
of  their  abominable  heresy,"  but  all  seemed 
childlike  and  deeply  imbued  with  religious 
veneration.  A  missionary  at  Omaha  who  saw 
them  pass  testified,  ^'I  have  never  yet  con- 
versed with  a  lay  Mormon  whom  I  believed  to 
be  a  hypocrite." 

Nothing  could  be  done  in  Utah.  Out-door 
preaching  was  forbidden,  and  no  house  could 
be  rented  in  Salt  Lake.  *^ Outwardly,"  says 
Bishop  Talbot,  ^4t  is  the  most  moral,  orderly 
and  quiet  city  I  have  ever  seen.  No  saloon, 
gambling  den  or  evil  house  exists  in  this  com- 
munity of  15,000  souls;  yet  its  inner  life  is 
most  shocking  to  the  Christian  sense." 

Two  years  later,  in  1865,  Bishop  Eandall  was 


DANIEL   SYLVESTER  TUTTLE 
Presiding   Bishop   of   the    Church 


■^G 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     119 

consecrated  for  Colorado  and  took  the  over- 
sight of  the  extreme  western  portion  of  this 
field;  and  after  Bishop  Talbot's  election  to  In- 
diana the  remainder  was  further  divided. 
Bishop  Clarkson  was  chosen  for  Nebraska  in 
1865;  Bishop  Tuttle  was  sent  to  Utah,  Idaho 
and  Montana  in  1867;  Bishop  Whittaker  to 
Nevada  in  1869. 

The  great  missionary  figure  of  this  region, 
and  the  one  whose  work  will  stand  for  ns  as 
the  type  of  what  others  were  doing 
Bishop  Tnttie  -^  other  placcs,  was  Daniel  Sylvester 
Tuttle,  consecrated  May  1,  1867,  for  Mon- 
tana, with  jurisdiction  over  Idaho  and  Utah. 
The  General  Convention  of  the  previous  Oc- 
tober had  elected  him,  not  knowing  that  he 
lacked  several  months  of  the  canonical  age, 
being  little  more  than  twenty-nine.  But  the 
House  of  Bishops  were  so  confident  that  they 
had  the  right  man  for  the  place  that  the  elec- 
tion was  held  to  be  valid  and  the  consecration 
delayed  until  after  his  thirtieth  birthday. 

Fortunately  for  the  Church,  Bishop  Tuttle 
has  told  his  story  in  a  book  of  reminiscences.* 
It  is  vivid  with  the  atmosphere  and  color  of 
the  pioneer  life  of  the  then  far  west.  It  tells 
of  the  preaching  in  little  towns  and  camps,  the 
talks  with  simple,  sturdy  men,  the  building  of 

*  Eeminiscences  of  a  Missionary  Bishop,  by  Daniel  Sylvester 
Tuttle:  Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York. 


120       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

plain  churches,  the  starting  of  institutions  and 
the  bare-fisted  grappling  with  elementary  con- 
ditions, and  it  has  for  its  setting  the  peculiar 
prairies,  bogs  and  streams  of  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tain region.  Of  course  the  great  value  of  this 
book  is  its  tale  of  the  planting  and  progress  of 
the  Church  in  that  part  of  our  land,  but  anyone 
who  wants  a  vivid  glimpse  of,  and  some  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with,  the  pioneer  life  so 
swiftly  vanishing  and  in  some  aspects  already 
gone,  can  find  it  in  these  reminiscences.  Would 
you  know  what  Indian  troubles  were  to  the 
early  settlers?  Would  you  see  the  real  stage 
driver  of  the  Eockies,  or  walk  through  the  old- 
time  mining  camp,  or  know  those  strange  peo- 
ple the  Mormons — one  of  the  peculiar  problems 
of  our  Western  work  1    Here  they  are. 

The  territory  to  which  Bishop  Tuttle  was 
sent  in  1867  comprised  340,000  square  miles,  an 
area  more  than  forty  times  the  size 
of  Massachusetts.  Into  Montana  no 
clergyman  of  the  Church  had  ever  gone,  so  far 
as  is  known.  The  Eev.  St.  Michael  Fackler 
had  preceded  Bishop  Tuttle  by  three  years,  and 
had  built  a  plain  frame  church  at  Boise  City, 
Idaho.  Once  Bishop  Scott  had  set  out  from 
Oregon  to  visit  this  place,  but  was  compelled 
by  illness  to  turn  back.  In  Utah  the  Eev. 
Messrs.  Foote  and  Haskins  had  been  at  work 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     121 

about  two  months.  This  was  the  sum  total  of 
the  Church's  record  in  the  entire  region  with 
its  population  of  more  than  150,000  people. 

For  thirteen  years  Bishop  Tuttle  travelled 
over  this  territory,  establishing  strong  centres 
Hi3  Methods  ^^  places  like  Helena,  Boise  and  Salt 
of  Work  Lake.     The  methods  which  he  used 

in  the  different  parts  of  the  field  were  quite 
distinct,  and  proved  themselves  to  have  been 
wisely  chosen.  In  Utah  there  was  no  welcome 
for  the  Gentile,  and  still  less  for  his  religion. 
It  was  a  work  which  required  great  patience 
and  kindly  sympathy.  A  ready  wisdom 
was  needed  in  seizing  whatever  opportunity 
offered  to  present  the  Message  without  hope- 
lessly antagonizing  the  people.  The  stress  was 
therefore  wisely  laid  upon  the  point  where  the 
most  immediate  and  quiet  helpfulness  could  be 
shown — in  aiding  Utah  to  solve  its  educational 
problem.  For  Christian  work  among  a  Mor- 
mon population  the  two  day  schools  for  boys 
and  girls,  and  Eowland  Hall,  the  boarding 
school  for  girls,  were  admirably  adapted;  at 
three  other  points  in  Utah  like  schools  were 
opened.  Another  far-seeing  plan  for  evangel- 
ization in  ministration  to  an  immediate  need 
was  followed  out  in  the  founding  of  St.  Mark's 
Hospital  in  Salt  Lake.  At  that  time  such  a 
thing  as  a  hospital  was  unknown,  and  there 


122       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

were  only  three  physicians  among  15,000 
people. 

The  strongholds  of  Mormonism  then,  as  now, 
represented  essentially  the  problems  to  be 
found  in  a  foreign  land.  The  only  point  in 
which  the  work  was  notably  easier  was  in  the 
fact  that  there  was  already  a  common  lan- 
guage. This  was  perhaps  more  than  counter- 
balanced by  the  prejudice  and  animosity  felt 
toward  the  Gentiles  and  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment. The  special  characteristics  of  the 
Mormons  and  the  further  development  of  the 
Church's  work  among  them  we  shall  consider 
at  the  close  of  this  chapter. 

In  Montana  and  Idaho  the  methods  followed 
were  largely  evangelistic.  Here,  in  marked 
contrast  to  Utah,  the  desire  for  the  Church's 
services  was  wide-spread  and  eager.  The  ed- 
ucational work  was  not  neglected,  but  stress 
was  placed  upon  the  founding  of  missions  and 
the  development  of  parishes.  It  was  thirteen 
years  before  Montana  was  set  apart  as  a  sep- 
arate jurisdiction.  During  that  time  within  its 
borders  the  bishop  had  himself  ministered  in 
fifty-one  places.  Very  many  more  had  been 
reached  by  his  band  of  clergy.  Thus  were  the 
foundations  laid  upon  which  Bishop  Brewer, 
who  succeeded  Bishop  Tuttle,  built  up  the  pres- 
ent Diocese  of  Montana,  which  in  1911  num- 
bered nearly  4,000  communicants. 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains    123 

For  six  years  longer,  rounding  out  a  service 
of  twenty  years  as  missionary  bishop,  this  de- 
voted man  remained  in  charge  of  Idaho  and 
Utah.  Then  for  the  second  time  he  was  called 
to  be  the  diocesan  of  Missouri  and  felt  con- 
strained to  accept.  Beyond  doubt  his  decision 
was  a  wise  one,  although  the  grief  at  his  going 
was  universal.  In  his  twenty  years  as  mis- 
sionary bishop  he  had  confirmed  more  than 
1,200  persons  and  had  held  nearly  4,000  ser- 
vices. The  miles  which  he  had  travelled  the 
country  over,  on  foot  and  by  stage,  on  horse- 
back and  by  buckboard,  had  made  him  a  figure 
known  and  loved  everywhere.  The  three  com- 
municants in  Salt  Lake  had  become  more 
than  300,  and  in  the  schools  he  had  established 
there  over  3,000  boys  and  girls  had  been  taught. 
Such  was,  in  part,  the  fruitage  of  a  life  sown 
in  the  midst  of  what  people  called  a  desert,  giv- 
ing itself  unsparingly  to  reproduction  after  its 
kind. 

Perhaps  in  no  one  thing  was  Bishop  Tuttle  's 
wisdom  more  clearly  shown  than  in  his  treat- 
Bisho  Tuttle  i^aent  of  the  Mormons.  Uncompro- 
and  the  Mormons  misiugly  opposcd  to  them  and  their 
doctrines,  desiring  above  all  things  to  plant  the 
faith  of  the  Church,  he  nevertheless  won  the 
universal  regard  of  those  whom  he  stoutly  op- 
posed, so  that  the  official  Mormon  paper  of  Salt 
Lake  City,  when  the  news  came  in  1886  that 


124        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Bishop  Tuttle  had  accepted  his  election  to  Mis- 
souri, could  say  of  him : 

*^  Pronounced  in  his  opposition  to  the  Mor- 
mon faith,  Bishop  Tuttle  has  not  been  an  enemy 
of  the  Mormon  people.  He  has  not,  like  many 
of  his  cloth,  used  his  ecclesiastical  influence 
toward  the  oppression  and  spoliation  of  the 
Latter  Day  Saints.  He  has  not  only  been 
frank  to  express  his  dissent  from  the  doctrines 
of  the  Mormons  while  among  them,  but  brave 
enough  to  speak  in  defence  of  that  unpopular 
people  when  in  the  midst  of  their  enemies. 
Bishop  Tuttle  by  his  consistent  course  has 
gained  the  esteem  of  the  Mormons  without  los- 
ing the  respect  of  his  own  class  and  denomina- 
tion. We  bid  him  farewell  with  best  wishes  for 
his  welfare.  We  do  not  agree  with  him  in  re- 
ligious belief,  but  we  are  in  accord  with  that 
spirit  which  in  any  society  promotes  fairness, 
friendship  and  good-will  among  men;  which 
encourages  morality  and  right  conduct,  and 
which  breathes  charity  and  peace." 

So  he  went  from  them,  ceasing  nominally  to 
be  a  missionary  bishop,  but  always  in  heart  and 
service  bearing  the  same  splendid  witness  for 
his  Master  which  had  won  him  in  the  land  of 
the  mountains  and  hills  the  regard  and  rever- 
ence of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  by 
which  he  stands  forth  upon  the  pages  of  the 
Church's  history  as  a  typical  missionary; 
bishop. 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     126 


in 


We  have  already  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  problem  which  faced  the  Church  in 
mv  T.  V,     ,     this  new  section  was  that  of  the  pe- 

The  Problem  of  ^ 

the  Peculiar  Peoples  (3|jij^^  J.  peoplcs.  Thc  American  and 
the  foreign  immigrant  were  there,  of  course,  as 
was  also  the  Indian.  Bishop  Tuttle  and  Bishoj) 
Ethelbert  Talbot,  who  followed  him  into 
Wyoming  and  Idaho,  met  and  won  them  to  the 
Church.*  The  character  of  the  work  among 
them  has  been  dealt  with  in  preceding  chap- 
ters. We  shall  therefore  confine  our  attention 
to  that  portion  of  the  population  which,  either 
by  their  occupation  or  their  affiliations,  were 
especially  difficult  of  access  and  required  un- 
usual treatment. 

1.     The  first  of  these  is  the  cowboy,  embrac- 
ing   under    that    term    the    cattlemen    of    all 
grades.    Theirs  was  a  transient  and 

The  Cowboy  .  ji  i  •    j 

passing,  even  though  a  picturesque, 
occupation.  The  machine  which  turned  out  the 
first  roll  of  barbed  wire^  sounded  the  first 
stroke  in  the  knell  of  the  cowboy.  So  long  as 
the  plains,  or  some  large  portion  of  them,  be- 
longed to  him — or  at  least  to  no  one  else — the 

*  Bishop  Ethelbert  Talbot  has  told  his  experiences  in  a 
book  of  vivid  sketches  entitled  My  People  of  the  Plains: 
Harper  Brothers,  New  York  and  London. 


126        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

old  type  of  cattleman  continued.  With  the  com- 
ing of  the  settler  and  the  fencing  of  the  lands 
he  was  compelled  either  to  disappear  from  the 
scene,  or  to  become  himself  a  ranchman  and 
turn  his  cowboy  into  a  ^' hired  man.''  But 
while  they  lasted  they  were  a  splendid  and 
dashing  type  which  has  deservedly  captured 
the  imagination  of  many  people,  and  will  live 
in  fiction  and  the  drama  for  many  years  to 
come.  Outside  of  a  Wild  West  show  no  cow- 
boy of  the  old  type  now  exists.  But  once  he  did 
exist  in  large  numbers,  and  was  a  religious 
problem. 

Though  the  cowboy  has  passed  the  ranch- 
man remains,  and  shares  somewhat  of  his  char- 
acteristics. The  Church  must  still  adapt  her- 
self to  his  needs,  and  by  some  form  of  itinerant 
ministry,  such  as  has  been  so  successfully  con- 
ducted in  Kearney  *  and  other  districts,  must 
reach  these  scattered  people  with  the  message 
of  the  Church.     Wherever  this  has  been  se- 

*  In  the  sand  hills  of  northwestern  Nebraska,  among  a 
people  destitute  of  religious  opportunities,  a  lay  missionary 
to  the  ranchers  within  six  months  presented  100  for  confirma- 
tion. A  letter  from  Bishop  A.  E.  Graves  tells  how  within  a 
fortnight  he  had  driven  259  miles,  held  34  services,  delivered 
20  sermons  or  addresses,  baptized  69,  confirmed  59,  and  ad- 
ministered the  Holy  Communion  to  97  people.  The  heaviest 
day's  work  involved  27  miles  in  the  wagon,  with  6  services 
and  5  sermons  or  addresses.  Not  a  single  service  during  the 
fortnight  was  held  in  a  church.  And  all  this  was  in  one  man's 
' '  parish. ' ' 


Q 
O 

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H 

H 
O 

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O 
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O 

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c/2 


< 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains    127 

riously  and  wisely  undertaken  the  results  have 
been  extraordinary. 

2.  This  second  class  is  waxing  greater 
rather  than  passing  away.  In  the  mountains 
and  foothills  of  this  region  are  vast 
stores  of  mineral  wealth.  The 
greatest  industry  to-day  in  the  State  of  Mon- 
tana is  mining.  Colorado  is  in  like  case,  and 
Nevada,  after  its  years  of  depression,  has 
sprung  to  a  foremost  position  among  the  pro- 
ducers of  the  country.  All  this  means  a  com- 
plicated question,  for  the  problem  of  the  miner 
is  a  difficult  one.  Not  only  do  we  allude  to  the 
miner  himself,  buried  in  his  unnatural  work 
underground,  to  whom  night  and  day,  Sundays 
and  week-days  are  much  the  same ;  not  only  are 
we  thinking  of  the  families  in  mining  communi- 
ties, but  also  of  the  sudden  wealth,  the  vulgar 
riches,  the  elements  of  political  corruption, 
the  unrestrained  animosities  between  employer 
and  employed,  and  that  feverish,  gambling 
spirit  which  is  so  frequently  associated  with 
this  occupation. 

Another  feature  of  the  work  among  miners 
is  the  problem  of  the  ' '  dead  camps. ' '  Of  them 
Bishop  Spalding  says :  ^ '  These  have  always 
seemed  to  me  most  pathetic  and  appealing  com- 
munities. All  over  the  mining  country  are  little 
groups  of  people  holding  on  and  hoping  for  a 
new  strike  and  a  new  home.    Those  who  struck 


128       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

it  when  the  camp  was  founded  have  moved 
away  years  ago,  but  they  have  left  behind 
them  those  who  missed  it,  who  live — God  only 
knows  on  what — for  hopes  and  memories  are 
not  a  substitute  for  bread  and  butter.  People 
in  these  old  survivals  of  camps  are  really  glad 
to  see  the  missionary." 

3.  But  the  great  problem  of  this  region  is 
the  Mormon.  Here  we  encounter  a  people  pe- 
culiar indeed,  but  not  distinct  by 
The  Mormon  nationality.  They  are  gathered 
from  all  over  the  world.  They  are  Welsh  and 
English,  Bohemian  and  Swede;  discouraged 
men  and  women  from  the  south  and  east.  It 
is  claimed  that  1,200  were  ^'shipped"  from  the 
Liverpool  office  alone  in  1910  and  nearly  a  thou- 
sand converts  baptized  in  the  east  and  south. 
Everywhere  Mormon  missionaries  travel,  and 
by  immigration  as  well  as  by  multiplication 
upon  the  soil,  the  35,000  who  left  Illinois  sixty 
years  ago  have  become  the  350,000  of  to-day. 

IV 

Students  of  missions  are  accustomed  to 
speak  of  Mohammendanism  as  the  one  great 
The  Missionary  missiouary  religiou  which  is  actively 
MwmoSiI*'  opposing  the  progress  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  but  Mormonism  in  its  missionary 
aspects  has  Mohammedanism  discounted  ten- 
fold.    Every  young  man  who  has  reached  a 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains    129 

certain  age  may,  and  probably  will,  receive 
notice  from  the  Church  authorities  that  he  is 
expected  to  go  for  two  years  as  a  missionary 
into  such  part  of  this  or  another  country  as 
they  may  choose  to  send  him;  and  what  is 
more,  he  will  go  and  return  at  his  own  expense. 
They  furnish  him  with  nothing  but  injunctions 
and  a  volume  of  Biblical  proof  texts  for  con- 
troversy. In  1835,  when  the  Mormon  Church 
was  only  five  years  old,  they  sent  their 
preachers  to  England,  and  twice  each  year  new 
bands  are  sent  out  to  the  British  Isles,  Den- 
mark, Norway,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  Australia, 
Honolulu  and  the  various  parts  of  this  coun- 
try. Two  thousand  young  Mormon  mission- 
aries go  out  each  year.  ^^The  missionary's 
outfit,"  says  Bishop  Talbot,  ^^ consists  of  a 
Prince  Albert  coat,  a  white  necktie,  a  Mormon 
Compendium  of  Keady  Reference  Scriptural 
Texts,  a  great  deal  of  courage  and  self-assur- 
ance, tempered  with  enough  religious  zeal  to 
arouse  the  attention  of  the  most  careless." 

But  if  the  Mormon  Church  seems  niggardly 
to  its  missionaries,  it  is  generous  to  its  con- 
Treatment  verts.  At  the  very  outset  it  estab- 
of  Converts  lislicd  a  pcrpctual  immigration  fund, 
which  by  tithes  and  special  contributions  has 
reached  enormous  figures,  and  out  of  which 
the  expenses  of  those  who  come  to  Utah  are  de- 
frayed.   Not  only  so,  but  they  have  the  promise 


130        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

of  land  and  an  outfit  for  working  it,  absolutely- 
free  of  charge.  Not  much  stress  is  laid  upon 
the  fact  that  the  repayment  of  this  amount  will 
be  their  first  business  when  they  are  settled 
in  Utah.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  half-educated 
and  weak-willed  and  half-hearted  people  seize 
upon  an  opportunity  painted  in  such  glowing 
colors? 

Yes,  it  is  a  wonderful  missionary  religion, 
but  you  will  have  already  perceived  that  there 
is  nothing  very  spiritual  about  it.  Cash  paid 
for  services  rendered — so  much  for  so  much — 
is  a  fundamental  principle  of  its  theology.  At 
least  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the  financial  side 
bulks  large. 

There  has  been  a  tendency  to  make  both  too 
much  and  too  little  of  Mormonism.  It  cannot 
The  strength  ^^  disposed  of  either  by  thundering 
of  Mormonism  denuuciatious  or  by  an  off-hand  dis- 
missal. It  is  true  that  there  are  less  than  half 
a  million  Mormons,  but  it  is  also  true  that  they 
have  multiplied  many  times  as  rapidly  as  has 
the  nation  itself.  An  organization  so  reproduc- 
tive and  so  dominating  as  ^^The  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints'' — which  is 
its  correct  title — must  have  signal  elements  of 
strength.    What  are  they? 

It  claims  to  be  the  Christian  religion  in  an 
improved  and  enlarged  form.     According  to 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     131 

iciaimBtobethe  ^^^^  ^^^k  of  Mormon  Christ,  after 
Christian  Religion  jjjg  Asceiision,  descended  again  in 

America  and  appointed  twelve  apostles,  who 
founded  the  original  Mormon  Church,  the  rec- 
ords of  which  were  found  by  Joseph  Smith  upon 
the  golden  plates  hid  in  the  hill  of  Cumorah, 
near  Palmyra,  New  York.  Mormons  claim  to 
have  six  sources  of  revelation:  (a)  The  Old 
Testament;  (b)  The  New  Testament;  (c)  The 
Book  of  Mormon;  (d)  The  Book  of  Doctrine 
and  Covenants  (the  revelations  hitherto  made 
to  the  head  of  the  Church — mostly  from  the 
prolific  pen  of  Joseph  Smith) ;  (e)  ^^The  Pearl 
of  Great  Price,"  by  Joseph  Smith,  Jr. ;  (f )  The 
oral  revelations  which  may  be  made  from  time 
to  time  by  the  President  of  the  Church,  who  is 
*^ Prophet,  Seer  and  Eevelator  of  the  Lord." 

Mormons,  then,  will  listen  to  all  you  say,  and 
will  admit  all  you  claim  for  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New,  declaring  that  they  hold  for  them 
a  respect  and  reverence  equal  to  your  own; 
then  they  will  invite  you  to  consider  these 
further  sources  of  Divine  illumination  which 
they  possess.  The  half-instructed  or  merely 
nominal  Christian  finds  himself  at  a  loss  to 
reply. 

Mormonism  has  what  has  been  described  as 
the  most  perfect   and  thorough  organization 


132        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

2  Its  Wonder-  wMch  the  worM  has  ever  seen.  Pres- 
fui  organmtion  •  ^^^^^  Apostles,  High  Priests,  Seven- 
ties, Bishops,  Elders — these  are  only  a  part  of 
the  Mormon  hierarchy.  Each  boy  fourteen 
years  of  age  is  baptized  and  becomes  a  deacon ; 
at  eighteen  he  becomes  a  priest.  Just  what 
these  terms  may  mean  does  not  appear,  but 
Brigham  Young  was  wise  enough  to  know  that 
men  love  to  hold  office,  and  also  that  there  is  no 
better  way  of  testing  loyalty  and  devotion  than 
by  conferring  authority  and  responsibility.  Out 
of  144  who  made  the  first  party  to  cross  the 
plains,  113  were  officers  of  some  sort,  leaving  31 
to  belong  to  the  rank  and  file. 

Mormon  cities  are  divided  into  wards.  There 
are  twenty-four  of  these  in  Salt  Lake.  Each 
ward  has  its  bishop  and  its  meeting-house.  In 
Utah  there  are  probably  400  bishops.  Each 
bishop  has  his  counsellors  under  him.  Some- 
times the  presence  of  quite  so  many  bishops 
produces  delicate  situations  for  the  man 
who  is  our  bishop  in  Utah.  Bishop  Tuttle  re- 
lates how,  at  the  time  of  one  of  their  September 
conferences,  when  multitudes  were  assembled 
in  the  town,  a  person  came  to  his  door  and 
asked,  ' '  Is  the  bishop  in  r '  ^ '  No. "  ''  Then  is 
the  bishop ^s  wife  in?"  ^'No."  ^^Well,  are 
any  of  his  wives  in!" 

The  organization  of  the  Mormon  Church  is 
not  a  matter  of  officials  only.    The  Church  has 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     133 

its  hand — and  a  vigorous  one — upon  every  act 
and  condition  of  human  Hfe.  Tithes  are  uni- 
versally expected,  and  free-will  offerings  in  ad- 
dition. All  these  went  into  the  hands  of  Brig- 
ham  Young  to  be  spent  exactly  as  he  chose 
without  rendering  an  account  to  any  one.  Even 
the  theatres  and  other  amusements  are  under 
the  control  of  and  managed  by  the  Church.  The 
Church  tells  a  man  not  only  what  he  must  be- 
lieve and  what  laws  he  must  obey,  but  it  prac- 
tically dictates  the  details  of  his  daily  life  and 
business.  Inquisitors  go  periodically  from 
house  to  house,  two  by  two — for  the  Mormon 
Church  never  sends  one  man  alone,  be  he  mis- 
sionary or  city  official — and  ask  the  most 
searching  questions,  which  must  be  answered; 
and  those  answers  will  be  repeated  to  the  secret 
council  of  the  priesthood.  Brigham  Young  was 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  greatest  organizers  and 
leaders  of  men  which  this  country  has  pro- 
duced. 

Another  strength  of  the  Mormon  Church  is 
its  appeal  to  sacrifice.  It  demands  much  of  its 
3.  Its  Appeal  pcoplc,  and  it  is  a  significant  trait  of 
to  Sacrifice  bumau  uature  that  we  love  best  that 

for  the  sake  of  which  we  have  been  called  to 
suffer.  There  were  no  more  determined  up- 
holders of  polygamy  than  the  Mormon  women 
who  personally  suffered  most  by  it.  They  had 
been  taught  it  as  a  religious  duty,  and  felt  in 


134        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

it  a  call  to  self-sacrifice.  An  illustration  of 
this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  United  States 
Government  at  one  time  granted  universal  suf- 
frage to  Utah,  expecting  that  the  wronged 
women  of  Mormondom  would  arise  and  banish 
polygamy.  Just  the  reverse  was  the  case,  and 
the  suffrage  was  later  withdrawn. 

The  Mormons  claim  an  Apostolic  Succession 
— not  only  of  the  New  but  of  the  Old  Testa- 
4.  ita  "Apos-  ment.  They  say  that  John  the  Bap- 
toiio  Succession."  ^-g^  appeared  to  Joseph  Smith  and 

Oliver  Cowdery  and  admitted  them  to  the 
*^Aaronic  priesthood.^'  Thereupon  Joseph 
baptized  Oliver  by  immersion  and  Oliver  in 
his  turn  immediately  baptized  Joseph.  Later 
Saints  Peter  and  James  and  John  appeared  to 
the  two  men  aforesaid  and  admitted  them  to  the 
Melchisedec  priesthood.  Joseph  then  ordained 
Oliver  an  elder  and  Oliver  ordained  Joseph. 

Crude  and  sacrilegious  as  all  this  may  seem, 
it  is  very  real  to  the  devout  Mormon,  and  con- 
stitutes a  fountain  of  priestly  authority  which 
i^  already  fortified  against  all  counter  claims 
which  may  be  adduced. 

They  have  an  infallible  fountain  of  revela- 
tion. The  Pope  himself  must  yield  precedence 
to    the    president    of    the    Mormon 

6.  Its  Never-  ^ 

failing  Revelation  Cliurch,  for  the  Bishop  of  Komc  is 
infallible  only  in  faith  and  morals,  while  Brig- 
ham  Young  was  not  only  infallible  when  he 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     135 

spoke  on  these,  but  when  he  issued  directions 
about  the  care  of  children,  the  rotation  of  crops 
and  the  raising  of  hogs. 

The  Mormons  are  taught  the  constant  duty 
of  prayer.  Formal  to  a  considerable  extent  it 
6.  Its  Practice  ^^7  he ;  materialistic  in  conception 
^*^"  it  undoubtedly  is ;  but  public  and  pri- 

vate worship,  prayer  in  the  family,  prayer  at 
meals,  and  even  prayer  at  social  dances  is  en- 
joined and  practised. 

Such  are  some  of  the  elements  of  the  strength 
in  Mormonism.    Its  weaknesses  are  also  many. 
6.  Its  Practice     ^hicf  amoug  them  are: 
of  Prayer  -j^^    Polygamy.    This  has  in  large 

measure  passed  away  in  practice,  but  the  stigma 
of  its  promulgation  remains  a  reproach  upon 
the  Mormon  Church.  It  is  the  opinion  of  the 
most  careful  observers  that  polygamy  is 
doomed;  not  because  of  the  law  of  the  state, 
but  because  it  is  opposed  to  the  better  educated 
moral  judgment  of  the  young  Mormon  men  and 
women  of  to-day.  But  that  such  a  thing  could 
have  been  inculcated  and  practised  by  a  re- 
ligious body  calling  itself  Christian  is  an  in- 
fallible sign  of  vital  weakness  within. 

2.  The  Mormon  faith  is  utterly  material' 
istic.  Their  idea  of  God  and  of  the  spiritual 
world  is  more  than  anthropomorphic,  it  is 
hopelessly  **of  the  earth,  earthy.''    A  Mormon 


136       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

elder  said  to  a  Christian  missionary,  **God  is 
certainly  a  man,  for  the  Bible  says  that  he 
shaved  his  beard  with  a  hired  razor!''*  God 
to  them  is  a  somewhat  enlarged  Adam,  and  the 
future  life,  in  which  the  *^ saints''  will  them- 
selves have  become  gods,  has  all  the  sordid  and 
material  elements,  while  it  may  lack  the  sen- 
sual glow  of  the  Mohammedan  paradise. 

A  missionary  tells  of  visiting  the  house 
of  a  Mormon  bishop  and  finding  his  wife 
engaged  in  making  up  the  tithing  reports. 
**This,"  she  said,  ^4s  the  Book  of  Life,  and  out 
of  it  the  Mormons  will  be  judged."  It  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  a  Mormon  expects  a  quid 
pro  quo,  a  thousand-fold  increased,  for  the  good 
works  which  he  practises  here. 

An  example  of  the  crass  materialism  of  their 
doctrine,  and  also  of  the  unscrupulous  shrewd- 
ness of  their  leader  may  be  found  in  the  follow- 
ing story: 

'^It  is  said  that  a  Welshman  with  one  leg 
had  been  converted  on  the  promise  that  Brig- 
ham  could  cause  a  new  leg  to  grow.  He 
reached  Salt  Lake,  and  forthwith  presented 
himself  at  the  ^  Zion  House  Office, '  and  was  con- 
fronted by  the  great  man. 

'*  *And  so  you  want  a  new  leg,  do  you?'  said 

*  A  grotesque  misunderstanding  of  Isaiah  7 :  20,  where  God, 
through  the  prophet,  threatens  to  destroy  Judah  by  the  kings 
of  Assyria. 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     137 

Brigham.  *Well,  I  can  give  it  yon,  but  re- 
member that  all  the  attributes  you  have  in  this 
life  will  be  resurrected  at  the  last  day.  Now, 
you  have  already  had  two  legs,  and  if  I  create 
for  you  a  third,  in  eternity  you  will  be  a  mon- 
strosity, and  will  have  three  legs.  Besides, 
you  are  already  old  and  cannot  live  much 
longer.  Choose  therefore  between  a  new  leg 
here  and  three  in  heaven.' 

* '  The  poor  fellow  naturally  decided  to  try  to 
be  content  with  one  leg  here  that  he  might  have 
only  two  hereafter." 

3.  A  third  weakness  of  the  Mormon  religion 
is  its  utter  intolerance  of  any  other.  At  a  time 
when  these  people  could  be  kept  separate  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  this  was  an  element  of 
strength  rather  than  weakness,  but  as  they  go 
out  and  come  into  contact  with  the  results  of  a 
Christian  civilization,  as  they  take  advantage 
of  the  opportunities  for  a  higher  education,  the 
contrast  must  make  it  increasingly  hard  for 
Mormon  young  men  and  women  to  maintain 
their  sincere  and  simple  faith  in  the  alleged 
revelations  of  their  Church.  Mormonism 
brooks  nothing  but  absolute  submission,  and 
this  it  grows  more  and  more  difficult  for  edu- 
cated persons  to  give. 

These  are  some  of  the  weaknesses.  Many 
others  might  be  added.  Bishop  Tuttle  in  his 
Eeminiscences  has  given  an  exceedingly  dis- 


138        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

criminating  and  sympathetic  chapter  on  the 
Mormons,  the  study  of  which  will  throw  many 
valuable  side-lights  upon  the  question.  He 
summarizes  the  impressions  there  recorded  in 
the  following  words : 

^^If  one  considers  the  religious  earnestness 
that  belief  in  revelation  begets,  an  earnestness 
nourished  and  perpetuated  by  prayer  and  at- 
tendance on  divine  ordinances,  and  made  deep 
and  strong  by  self-sacrifice  in  the  giving  of 
tithes  of  money,  of  time,  and  of  strength  in  mis- 
sionary work,  one  will  not  be  surprised  to  find 
in  Mormonism  an  amazing  vigor,  even  though 
for  forty-four  years  it  crucified  the  nature  of 
woman,  for  thirty-four  years  defied  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  in  all  its  existence  has  seemed 
little  more  than  a  laughing-stock  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  mankind." 

How  may  the  Church  help  these  people? 
Bishop  Spalding  gives  the  following  clear 
Methods  of  Work  statcmcut  of  the  policy  pursued  by 
Among  Mormons    ^g  ^^  dealing  with  the  Mormons: 

I  i  Three  methods  are  in  vogue  of  dealing  with 
the  Mormons.  One  has  been  tried  by  the  de- 
nominations, who  seek  to  batter  Mormonism 
down  with  opprobrium.  The  second  is  that  of 
the  Eomanists — the  plan  of  building  a  majestic 
cathedral  on  a  commanding  site  in  Salt  Lake 
City  and  leaving  the  front  door  open.    The  third 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     139 

is  the  course  adopted  hy  our  Church,  of  avoid- 
ing politics  and  polemics,  preaching  positively 
the  historic  gospel. 

''The  last  we  believe  to  be  the  best  method. 
The  Eoman  Church  contributes  nothing  to  the 
solution  of  the  difficulty.  The  Protestants,  by 
their  numbers,  their  energy,  and  the  financial 
backing  they  enjoy,  have  done  very  much 
through  their  mission  schools;  but  their  mili- 
tant and  derisive  attitude  has  compromised 
their  evangelical  message.  .  .  .  The  Lat- 
ter Day  Saints  do  not  get,  as  a  rule,  the  sym- 
pathy extended  to  members  of  other  mistaken 
religions ;  they  are  made  to  feel  that  there  is  a 
gulf  fixed  between  them  and  orthodox  Chris- 
tians. .  .  .  It  is  the  aim  of  our  Church  to 
avoid  this  spirit  of  suspicion  and  hostility  and 
to  confine  itself  to  positive  and  constructive  ef- 
fort. By  this  means  it  hopes  to  accelerate  the 
natural  process  of  Mormon  evolution  from  the 
state  of  mind  which  accepts  Blood  Atonement 
and  polygamy  up  to  that  which  is  only  satis- 
fied with  the  Christian  standards.  Mormonism 
during  the  past  fifty  years  has  been  changed, 
developed,  uplifted  by  outside  influences;  and 
it  is  now  assuming  the  likeness  of  an  ordinary 
Christian  sect.  Our  Church  realizes  the  trans- 
formation, and,  welcoming  it,  seeks  to  push  it 
to  its  consummation.  No  other  policy  appears 
to  promise  results." 


140        The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Before  leaving  the  Mormon  problem  we  must 
remind  ourselves  that  year  after  year  the  nnm- 
ourDutyto  ^^^  ^^  Gentiles  grows  in  Mormon 
the  "Gentiles"  statos ;  that  moro  and  more  the  pop- 
ulations of  the  West  are  being  fused,  and  while 
this  will  act  beneficially  in  breaking  down  many 
of  the  barriers  of  Mormonism,  it  means  also 
that  thousands  of  Christian  men  and  women 
are  living  where  they  have  no  religious  oppor- 
tunities save  those  which  Mormonism  oifers. 
Our  first  and  our  largest  duty  is  to  them.  What 
can  there  be  for  children  brought  up  in  com- 
munities overwhelmingly  Mormon,  and  com- 
pelled, if  they  are  to  receive  any  religious  in- 
struction, to  receive  it  in  a  Mormon  Sunday- 
school?  Or,  perhaps  to  find  husband  or  wife 
in  a  Mormon  boy  or  girlf  It  was  a  shocking, 
but  no  doubt  a  true  thing  which  one  woman  so 
circumstanced  said  to  a  missionary:  '^I  don't 
believe  in  Mormonism,  but  I  send  my  children 
to  their  Sunday-school,  and  when  they  come 
back  I  tell  them  that  everything  they  heard  is 
untrue!'' 

The  possibilities  of  the  land  of  the  mountains 
and  hills  are  as  yet  unwritten  and  in  a  measure 
The  ruture  unkuowu,  but  it  is  no  idle  dream 
of  this  Land  wliich  secs  in  the  future  a  mighty 
population  covering  tliis  wonderful  region.  The 
United  States  Government  touches  it  with  the 


The  Battle  Among  the  Mountains     141 

fairy  wand  of  irrigation,  and  behold,  a  garden 
of  Eden  blossoms  where  was  once  only  sand 
and  sage  brush.  Its  riches  of  gold  and  silver, 
copper  and  iron,  exhaustless  as  they  seem,  are 
not  perhaps  its  greatest  wealth. 

If  the  Church  is  to  exercise  among  these  fu- 
ture millions  her  beneficent  influence,  we  must 
sow  widely  and  cultivate  carefully,  bearing  in 
our  hearts  and  upon  our  consciences  the  words 
— uttered  as  praise,  but  still  more  as  prayer: 
*^0  ye  Mountains  and  Hills,  bless  ye  the  Lord: 
praise  Him,  and  magnify  Him  for  ever/' 


VI 


PLANTING  THE  STANDAED  ON  THE 
SHORES  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

IT  is  said  in  California  that  if  by  any  chance 
Columbus  could  have  made  his  landfall  on 
the  Pacific  rather  than  the  Atlantic  coast, 
Boston  would  not  yet  have  been  discovered ;  but 
it  would  seem  that  this  statement  gives  too  little 
Boston  and  Credit  to  tlic  piouecr  spirit  of  the 
caufornia  American    people,    and   possibly    a 

trifle  too  much  to  the  climate  of  California.  At 
any  rate,  even  Californians  will  doubtless  be 
thankful  that  Boston  thus  providentially  es- 
caped oblivion. 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection  to  read 
what  Boston  once  thought  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 
After  Marcus  Whitman  had  opened  a  trail  to 
Oregon  and  John  C.  Fremont  had  pushed 
through  the  Salt  Lake  Valley  to  California,  it 
was  proposed  in  the  United  States  Congress  to 
establish  a  mail  route  from  Independence,  Mis- 
souri, to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River. 
Daniel  Webster,  in  a  speech  before  the  Senate, 
expressed  the  popular  estimate:  ^'What  do  we 

142 


o 

I— t 

< 
< 

< 
pq 

< 
H 
12; 
< 

H 

< 

O 


"A 
< 
U 

o 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  143 

want,"  he  said,  ^^with  this  vast  worthless  area, 
this  region  of  savages  and  wild  beasts,  of  des- 
erts, of  whirling  sands  and  whirlwinds  of  dust, 
of  cactus  and  prairie  dogs  f  To  what  use  could 
we  ever  hope  to  put  these  great  deserts,  or 
those  endless  mountain  ranges,  impenetrable, 
and  covered  to  their  very  base  with  eternal 
snow?  What  can  we  ever  hope  to  do  with  the 
western  coast  of  8,000  miles,  rock-bound,  cheer- 
less, uninviting,  and  not  a  harbor  on  it?  Mr. 
President,  I  will  never  vote  one  cent  from  the 
public  treasury  to  place  the  Pacific  Coast  one 
inch  nearer  to  Boston  than  it  now  is.'' 

It  is  easy  to  smile  at  such  an  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  such  a  man,  but  perhaps  some  of 
the  judgments  which  we  are  forming  to-day 
will  within  a  generation  need  quite  as  thorough 
a  revision. 


Though  Columbus  did  not,  yet  in  a  sense  the 
Church  did  make  her  landfall  on  the  Pacific 
An  Ancient  Coast.  The  first  Christian  service 
Land  y^qI^    there — by    Master    Fletcher, 

chaplain  of  Sir  Francis  Drake  in  1579 — ^was  in 
the  language  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  is  commemorated  by  a  cross  in  Golden 
Gate  Park,  San  Francisco.  Civilization,  too, 
may  be  said  to  have  found  its  first  foothold 
here.     The  oldest  house  in  the  United  States 


IM       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

is  not  in  Jamestown  nor  Plymouth,  but  in 
Santa  Fe.  Ancient  also  is  this  land  as  a  field 
of  missionary  endeavor,  where  the  devoted 
Franciscans  founded  their  missions  and  con- 
ducted that  marvellous  Christianizing  of  the 
Indians,  beginning  at  San  Diego  in  1769. 

Shut  away  beyond  its  barrier  of  mountains, 
more  directly  in  contact  with  Asia  than  with 
American  ^^^    castem    part    of    the    United 

Colonization  Statcs,  twico  as  rcmoto  from  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  by  the  shortest  route  as 
was  England,  California  in  1840  was  untouched 
by  American  influence.  The  first  company  of 
immigrants  arrived  in  the  Sacramento  Valley 
in  1841.  They  found  there,  already  long  estab- 
lished, the  rule  of  the  Spaniard,  who  had  no 
welcome  for  them.  A  few  scattered  Americans 
had  preceded  them,  and  with  these  they  asso- 
ciated themselves.  So  weak  was  the  hold  of  the 
Mexican  government  upon  its  distant  province 
that  glad  as  it  would  have  been  to  dispossess 
the  gringos  it  could  not  do  so.  In  a  few  years 
there  were  four  or  five  thousand  of  them  scat- 
tered through  the  valleys  and  over  the  plains 
of  California.  It  was  not  long  before  the  evil 
rule  of  Mexico  forced  California  to  declare  her 
independence,  with  the  result  that  Mexico  was 
the  more  willing  to  cede  her  rebellious  terri- 
tory to  the  United  States  in  1848. 

In  Oregon  also,  ten  years  earlier  than  in 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         145 

California,  an  American  settlement  had  been 
begun.  Marcus  Whitman,  who  by  his  remark- 
able ride  to  the  East  at  the  time  when  the  Ore- 
gon boundary  question  was  about  to  be  settled 
probably  saved  a  large  and  valuable  territory 
to  the  United  States,  brought  back  with  him  the 
first  great  immigrant  train  over  the  ^^  Oregon 
trail.  *' 

But  the  results  of  normal  effort  to  secure  im- 
migration were  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
immigration  which  came  of  itself 
after  James  W.  Marshall,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1848,  had  picked  up  some  shining  bits  of 
yellow  metal  in  the  tail-race  above  Sutter 's  mill. 
The  thing  has  scarcely  been  paralleled  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
country  flocked  to  the  Sacramento  and  its  tribu- 
taries armed  with  pans  and  shovels.  In  San 
Francisco  and  the  other  towns  business  was  at  a 
standstill.  Ships  stood  in  the  harbors  aban- 
doned by  their  crews.  Picks,  shovels  and  pans 
commanded  fabulous  prices.  Oregon  was  al- 
most deserted  by  its  men.  That  fall  and  winter 
the  news  covered  the  land  and  ran  around  the 
world.  The  following  year  strings  of  wagons 
began  to  gather  at  the  Missouri,  and  by  the 
early  summer  25,000  had  moved  toward  the 
West.  Some  went  by  the  old  Oregon  trail,  but 
this  was  too  long  for  the  eager,  fretting  spirit 
of  most,  and  a  new  pathway  to  California  was 


146       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

broken  through  Nevada  and  the  Sierras.  Two 
years  after  the  discovery  of  gold  California  had 
nearly  100,000  people,  and  San  Francisco  had 
become  the  commercial  centre  of  the  West. 

With  the  Forty-niners  went  a  clergyman  of 
the  Church,  the  Eev.  Flavel  Scott  Mines,  who 
Our  First  ^^^  ^^^  distiuctiou  of  crectiug  our 

Church  gj.g|.  building  on  the  Pacific  Coast — 

Trinity  Church,  San  Francisco,  which  was 
opened  on  October  28,  1849.  It  was  a  rude 
little  building,  whose  picture  is  shown  in  an 
old  missionary  periodical.  Three  women  are 
at  the  door  about  to  enter.  They  were  put  into 
the  picture  because  they  represented  the  entire 
female  membership  of  the  congregation  at  that 
time.  Mr.  Mines  had  the  unique  experience  of 
ministering  to  a  congregation  where  the  men 
were  always  in  excess  of  the  women.  Bishop 
Kip  says  of  him:  ^^He  was  a  man  of  energy 
and  talents,  and  nothing  but  his  failing  health 
and  early  death  prevented  the  accomplishment 
of  all  his  hopes.'' 

Things  moved  rapidly  in  those  days,  and  in 
1850  we  find  the  first  convention  of  the  Church 
The  First  i^    California    in    session    at    San 

Francisco,  with  six  clergy  present. 
They  did  not  regard  themselves  as  necessarily 
a  part  of  the  Church  in  the  United  States ;  they 
ignored    the    name    '^Protestant    Episcopal," 


^ -^-^    *       At?'"** 


oo 

u 

^- 
I— I  </, 

I- 

^^ 

^  s 
«  5 

I— I     <o 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         147 

calling  themselves  ''The  Church  in  California/' 
and  they  seriously  considered  asking  for  the 
episcopate  from  the  Greek  Church  in  Alaska — 
which  indeed  was  much  nearer  to  them  in  that 
day  than  was  the  Church  in  the  East. 

At  the  end  of  two  years  those  swift  changes 
which  marked  the  gold  country  had  swept  away 
The  First  "^^^  little  band  of  clergy.   Some  had 

Bishops  removed,    some   were   smitten  with 

the  gold  fever,  some  had  died — among  whom 
was  the  Eev.  Mr.  Mines.  The  vestry  of  Trinity 
Church  wrote  to  friends  in  the  East  seeking  a 
successor,  and  among  others  the  suggestion  of 
a  removal  to  California  was  made  to  the  Rev. 
William  Ingraham  Kip,  rector  of  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Albany.  The  idea  fascinated  him.  He 
even  went  so  far  as  to  consult  his  old  friend 
and  preceptor.  Bishop  Whittingham,  upon  the 
matter.  "Yes,"  said  the  bishop,  "you  must 
go  to  California,  but  not  as  a  presbyter.  We 
must  send  you  in  another  capacity."  Doubt- 
less it  was  this  which  resulted  in  Dr.  Kip's 
election  at  the  convention  of  1853  to  be  the  mis- 
sionary bishop  of  California.  At  the  same  time 
Thomas  Fielding  Scott  was  sent  as  missionary 
bishop  to  Oregon.  Thus  the  Church  on  the  Pa- 
cific Coast  received  its  bishops  more  promptly 
than  had  been  the  case  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  but  too  long  after  other  important 
Christian  bodies  had  established  themselves. 


148       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Bishop  Kip  in  his  interesting  volume,  ^  ^  Early 
Days  of  My  Episcopate/'  tells  the  story  of  his 
journey  to  California  hy  way  of  the 
Isthmus.  It  is  full  of  incident,  end- 
ing with  the  shipwreck  in  the  harbor  of  San 
Diego  of  the  ^^ Golden  Gate,''  the  vessel  on 
which  he  sailed  from  Panama.  They  trans- 
ferred to  another  vessel  and  reached  San  Fran- 
cisco on  the  fortieth  day  after  leaving  New 
York.  Two  church  buildings  and  one  clergy- 
man represented  the  entire  equipment  in  Cali- 
fornia. 

Within  three  hours  of  his  arrival  Bishop  Kip 
was  officiating  and  preaching  in  Trinity 
Church,  San  Francisco,  and  from  that  time, 
through  an  episcopate  which  covered  nearly 
forty  years,  he  was  the  champion  and  the  up- 
builder  of  the  Church  in  his  great  field.  His 
successor  in  the  episcopate  says  of  him:  ^^His 
noble  character  has  left  its  impress  at  many 
points  upon  the  diocese  to  which,  under  God, 
he  gave  shape,  and  in  his  commanding  and 
genial  presence  the  Church  was  blest  with  the 
power  to  confront  and  overcome  many  diffi- 
culties which  beset  her  in  those  early  days.'' 

An  amazing  growth  of  population  followed 
the  arrival  of  Bishop  Kip.  The  feverish  and  un- 
„  . ,  real  conditions  of  the  earlier  days 

Varied  \ 

Development        woro  iu  time  adjusted.     Men  still 
made  fortunes,  but  not  with  the  sole  thought  of 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  149 

returning  to  the  East  to  spend  them;  nor  did 
they  make  them  in  mines  alone.  The  example 
set  by  the  old  monks  who  founded  the  early 
missions  was  followed  by  many  who  turned 
themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the 
establishing  of  homes.  The  wonderful  agricul- 
tural possibilities  of  the  country  came  to  be 
understood. 

The  very  success  of  California  in  material 
things  made  the  success  of  the  Church  more 
difficult.  With  the  small  means  at  hand  and 
the  few  clergy  available,  anything  like  proper 
ministration  to  the  incoming  hoards  was  well- 
nigh  impossible.  In  1857,  however,  four  years 
after  Bishop  Kip's  arrival,  California  declined 
longer  to  be  a  missionary  district  and  a  pen- 
sioner upon  the  Church.  A  diocese  was  organ- 
ized and  Bishop  Kip  was  elected  as  its  first  dio- 
cesan. 

In  1874  California's  one  thousand  miles  of 
coast  line  was  divided  and  the  northern  part 
,  „.  .  was  set  off  as  a  missionary  district. 

A  Missionary  *' 

District  Created  ij^j^jg  j^q^  district,  kuowu  as  North- 
ern California,  included  the  greater  part  of  the 
mining  and  lumbering  region  of  the  state.  Its 
only  important  city  is  Sacramento,  the  state 
capital,  and  the  greater  part  of  its  area  is 
made  up  of  the  rugged  and  beautiful  but  dif- 
ficult   country   of  the   Coast  Eange  and  the 


150       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Sierras,  between  which  lies  the  valley  of  the 
Sacramento  River.  In  such  a  country  of  min- 
ing and  lumber  camps  and  small  market  towns 
the  growth  of  the  Church  was  slow.  Though 
the  land  produced  much  wealth,  it  kept  little, 
for  the  men  who  owned  the  mines  and  cut  the 
forests  lived  in  San  Francisco  or  St.  Louis  or 
New  York. 

But  Bishop  Wingfield,  when  he  came  to  his 
district,  found  there  two  men  whose  memories 

An  Old  Friend  ^^^  ^  blcsscd  heritage  to  the  Church. 
Moved  West        rpj^^  ^^.g^  ^^g  Jamcs  Lloyd  Breck. 

Here  at  Benicia,  on  the  straits  of  Carquinez, 
he  had  planted  St.  Augustine's  College,  a  school 
for  boys,  and  St.  Mary's  Hall  for  girls,  to 
which  he  gave  the  last  nine  years  of  his  re- 
markable life.  He  laid  excellent  foundations, 
but  in  this  third  venture  he  did  not  soon  enough 
obtain,  as  he  had  done  in  the  two  preceding 
ones,  the  adequate  support  of  the  Church.  His 
death,  which  occurred  two  years  after  Bishop 
"Wingfield 's  arrival,  was  a  staggering  blow  to 
the  new  district.  The  schools,  not  yet  on  a  suf- 
ficiently firm  footing,  were  sold  for  debt  at 
public  auction.  Bishop  Wingfield  bought  them 
with  his  own  money  and  carried  them  on  at 
great  self-sacrifice.  In  1889  the  wanton  mur- 
der of  the  bishop's  son,  who  was  head-master 
of  St.  Augustine's,  brought  the  schools  to  an 
end  and  forever  clouded  the  life  of  his  father. 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         149 

returning  to  the  East  to  spend  them;  nor  did 
they  make  them  in  mines  alone.  The  example 
set  by  the  old  monks  who  founded  the  early 
missions  was  followed  by  many  who  turned 
themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the 
establishing  of  homes.  The  wonderful  agricul- 
tural possibilities  of  the  country  came  to  be 
understood. 

The  very  success  of  California  in  material 
things  made  the  success  of  the  Church  more 
difficult.  With  the  small  means  at  hand  and 
the  few  clergy  available,  anything  like  proper 
ministration  to  the  incoming  hoards  was  well- 
nigh  impossible.  In  1857,  however,  four  years 
after  Bishop  Kip's  arrival,  California  declined 
longer  to  be  a  missionary  district  and  a  pen- 
sioner upon  the  Church.  A  diocese  was  organ- 
ized and  Bishop  Kip  was  elected  as  its  first  dio- 
cesan. 

In  1874  California's  one  thousand  miles  of 
coast  line  was  divided  and  the  northern  part 

A  Missionary  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^  ^  missiouary  district. 
District  Created  rpj^^g  ^^^^  district,  kuowu  as  North- 
ern California,  included  the  greater  part  of  the 
mining  and  lumbering  region  of  the  state.  Its 
only  important  city  is  Sacramento,  the  state 
capital,  and  the  greater  part  of  its  area  is 
made  up  of  the  rugged  and  beautiful  but  dif- 
ficult   country  of  the   Coast  Range  and  the 


150       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Sierras,  between  which  lies  the  valley  of  the 
Sacramento  Eiver.  In  such  a  country  of  min- 
ing and  lumber  camps  and  small  market  towns 
the  growth  of  the  Church  was  slow.  Though 
the  land  produced  much  wealth,  it  kept  little, 
for  the  men  who  owned  the  mines  and  cut  the 
forests  lived  in  San  Francisco  or  St.  Louis  or 
New  York. 

But  Bishop  Wingfield,  when  he  came  to  his 
district,  found  there  two  men  whose  memories 

An  Old  Friend  ^^^  ^  blcsscd  heritage  to  the  Church. 
Moved  West        rpj-^^  ^^^^  ^^g  James  Lloyd  Breck. 

Here  at  Benicia,  on  the  straits  of  Carquinez, 
he  had  planted  St.  AugTistine  's  College,  a  school 
for  boys,  and  St.  Mary's  Hall  for  girls,  to 
which  he  gave  the  last  nine  years  of  his  re- 
markable life.  He  laid  excellent  foundations, 
but  in  this  third  venture  he  did  not  soon  enough 
obtain,  as  he  had  done  in  the  two  preceding 
ones,  the  adequate  support  of  the  Church.  His 
death,  which  occurred  two  years  after  Bishop 
Wingfield 's  arrival,  was  a  staggering  blow  to 
the  new  district.  The  schools,  not  yet  on  a  suf- 
ficiently firm  footing,  were  sold  for  debt  at 
public  auction.  Bishop  Wingfield  bought  them 
with  his  own  money  and  carried  them  on  at 
great  self-sacrifice.  In  1889  the  wanton  mur- 
der of  the  bishop's  son,  who  was  head-master 
of  St.  Augustine's,  brought  the  schools  to  an 
end  and  forever  clouded  the  life  of  his  father. 


Sunday — Readv  for  Service 


Monday — Ready  for  a  tramp 


Place)  vilh\  the  home  of  Charh^s  Caleb  Pierce 
A    MODERN    SAINT    FRANCIS 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         151 

Breck's  last  work  stands  dismantled  and  aban- 
doned, a  reminder  of  how  the  Church  has  some- 
times failed  her  great  leaders  in  their  hour  of 
need. 

Wisconsin,  Minnesota  and  California — Na- 
shotah,  Seabury  and  St.  Augustine's!  What  a 
record  for  one  man !  That  one  of  these  is  dead 
argues  no  lack  of  wisdom  or  faith  or  courage 
in  this  great  pioneer.* 

But  Northern  California  is  the  scene  of  still 
another  story — not  so  tragic,  but  equally  touch- 

A  Modern  ^^^*    ^^  shows  what — givcu  the  man 

St.  Francis  — ^^^  Cliurch  may  do  among  re- 
mote and  scattered  people.  But  always,  given 
the  man! 

Charles  Caleb  Pierce,  whom  Bishop  More- 
land  calls  *^a  modern  St.  Francis, '^  devoted 
himself  to  the  needs  of  the  scattered  people  in 
a  rough  and  sparsely  settled  part  of  the  state. 
Without  private  means  and  refusing  a  salary, 
believing  that  the  people  whom  he  served  would 
provide  for  him,  for  forty-two  years  he  tramped 
from  hamlet  to  hamlet  and  camp  to  camp 
through  El  Dorado  County.  Sundays  found 
him  in  his  parish  church  in  Placerville,  reading 
the  familiar  services  and  performing  his 
priestly  duties.  Monday  morning  he  packed 
his  bag  with  religious  literature,  particularly 

*  For  a  more  intimate  study  of  Dr.  Breck  see  his  life  written 
by  his  brother,  Charles  Breck,  D.D. 


152       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

books  of  the  Bible  bound  separately,  and  took 
his  way  along  the  trails,  a  familiar  and  a 
loved  figure  everywhere.  Unmarried  and  in 
vigorous  health,  he  was  able  to  spend  six  days 
of  every  week  walking  over  the  country.  His 
circuits  were  known  beforehand  and  averaged 
sixty  miles  weekly.  Every  house  was  his  home. 
At  noon  or  evening  there  was  a  place  at  the 
table  or  a  bed  for  his  repose  wherever  he  hap- 
pened to  be.  His  charity  was  unbounded  and 
he  was  friend  and  helper  of  all.  Other  min- 
isters came  and  went,  but  Father  Pierce  stayed 
on.  He  sought  no  large  sphere,  and  larger 
spheres  after  a  time  ceased  to  seek  him.  With 
this  he  was  content.  Indeed,  during  the  latter 
days  of  his  life  it  was  his  boast  that  only  twice 
in  the  forty-two  years  had  he  been  outside  the 
county  limits,  and  then  against  his  will. 

We  may  imagine  what  it  meant  when  the 
news  flashed  through  the  county,  ^'Father 
Pierce  is  dead!"  On  the  day  of  his  funeral  the 
mayor  of  Placerville  issued  a  proclamation 
closing  all  places  of  business.  The  windows 
of  the  stores  held  the  dead  pastor's  portrait 
draped  in  black,  and  across  the  locked  doors 
of  the  saloons  appeared  this  legend:  *' Closed 
on  account  of  the  funeral  of  Brother  Pierce." 
The  local  newspaper  issued  an  extra  supple- 
ment with  his  picture  and  a  poem  entitled, 
**Come,  El  Dorado,  and  Bury  Your  Dead." 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  153 

Here  was  a  type  of  service  unique  and  beau- 
tiful. Other  men  in  other  ways  have  led 
equally  Christ-like  lives  and  rendered  perhaps 
greater  service,  but  this  man  appealed  to  the 
popular  imagination.  Here  was  one  who 
seemed  to  reproduce  the  method  of  the 
Saviour's  life.  He  went  about  doing  good;  he 
had  not  where  to  lay  his  head;  and  for  them 
El  Dorado  County  had  become  a  twentieth  cen- 
tury Palestine,  hallowed  by  the  footsteps  of  a 
devoted  follower  of  the  Master. 

These  things  a  man  may  still  do — in  poverty, 
in  obscurity,  in  remote  and  narrow  places — 
may  do  them  to  his  own  high  honor  and  the 
glory  of  the  Church,  if  he  will  forget  himself, 
remember  his  Master  and  love  his  fellow-men. 

We  may  not  pause  to  speak  at  greater  length 
concerning  California.  It  must  suffice  to  record 
that  a  new  ecclesiastical  division  in 
the  state  took  place  in  1895,  when 
the  growth  of  the  Church  made  necessary  the 
setting-off  of  the  southern  diocese  of  Los  An- 
geles. At  the  General  Convention  of  1910  two 
more  changes  took  place;  the  old  missionary 
district  of  Northern  California  became  the  dio- 
cese of  Sacramento,  while  a  new  missionary 
district  of  San  Joaquin  was  erected  out  of  the 
eastern  part  of  the  central  diocese. 


Other  Divisions 
in  California 


154      The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

II 

We  now  take  our  way  up  the  coast  to  the 
old  Oregon  Territory  into  which  Bishop  Scott 
Oregon  and  camo  iu  1854.  The  Oregon  of  that 
the  ohuToh  ^^y.  ^^g  ^^  immense  region.  It  in- 
cluded the  present  state  of  that  name  together 
with  Washington,  Idaho,  and  parts  of  Montana 
and  Wyoming.  The  Church  in  Oregon  had  al- 
ready been  organized  by  a  convention  of  three 
clergymen  and  seven  laymen.  Among  the 
clergymen  was  the  Eev.  St.  Michael  Packler, 
who  had  held  the  first  church  service  in  Ore- 
gon when  he  arrived  in  1847.  He  afterward 
opened  the  first  work  in  Boise  City,  Idaho, 
where  he  welcomed  Bishop  Tuttle  to  his  juris- 
diction. Twice  it  was  the  lot  of  this  pioneer 
priest  to  prepare  the  way  for  and  to  welcome 
a  missionary  bishop.  Mr.  Fackler,  like  so  many 
of  the  earlier  clergy  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  came 
thither  seeking  health.  Unlike  many  others,  he 
found  it — and  used  it  through  many  years  to 
spread  the  Kingdom. 

Bishop  Scott's  episcopate  covered  thirteen 
years.       They   were   years    of    toil,    and,    we 

Bisho  Scott  -"^^^  fear,  of  disappointment.  As 
one  of  his  successors  remarks,  * '  The 
Church  calmly  requested  Bishop  Scott  to  look 
after  this  vast  empire  without  a  single  mile  of 
railroad.    When  a  man  is  asked  to  spread  him- 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         155 

self  out  so  thinly  over  such  an  area,  not  much 
of  him  is  left  in  any  particular  place/'  He 
died  in  1867,  remembered  for  his  great  earnest- 
ness, energ}%  and  personal  holiness.  He  had 
fought  the  overwhelming  conditions  of  his  im- 
mense field,  had  struggled  with  the  scarcity  of 
men  and  resources,  and  while  it  was  not  given 
to  him  to  leave  behind  the  record  in  material 
things  which  other  more  fortunate  bishops  have 
done,  he  at  least  had  faithfully  planted  the  seed 
which  sprung  up  and  bore  fruit  for  later 
reapers. 

After  the  death  of  Bishop  Scott  in  1867  this 
northern  country  was  without  episcopal  over- 
sight until  in  1869  Bishop  B.  Wistar 

Bishop  Morris 

Morris  reached  the  field,  where  for 
thirty-seven  years  he  gave  himself  to  laying 
foundations  and  extending  the  borders  of  the 
Church.  Bishop  Morris  will  always  be  grate- 
fully and  lovingly  remembered  in  the  far  North- 
west. His  name  was  a  household  word  among 
the  pioneer  families  of  the  state.  He  was  pe- 
culiarly fitted  for  the  work  of  a  pioneer  bishop, 
who  must  be  in  journeyings  oft  and  in  labors 
most  abundant.  St.  Helen's  Hall  for  girls  and 
the  Good  Samaritan  Hospital,  the  thriving 
parishes  and  missions  in  Portland  and  other 
cities,  and  the  little  churches  which  he  built 
everywhere  throughout  his  jurisdiction  bear 
testimony  to  his  faithfulness. 


156      The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

In  Wasliington  as  well  as  Oregon  the  in- 
fluence of  Bishop  Morris's  care  was  manifest. 
Something  had  been  done  in  Bishop 
Scott's  day.  Two  or  three  faithful 
clergy  had  labored  there,  conspicuous  among 
them  the  Eev.  P.  E.  Hyland,  who  for  years 
rendered  the  noblest  kind  of  pioneer  service. 
When  Seattle  was  but  a  village  of  a  few  hun- 
dred inhabitants  it  had  built  a  church  and  called 
a  rector,  and  through  Mr.  Hyland 's  influence 
in  old  Tacoma,  a  mere  village,  a  little  church 
was  put  up  in  three  days,  some  of  the  mill  men 
giving  their  labor  and  some  their  money,  while 
the  mill  furnished  the  lumber.  Close  by  this 
church  of  St.  Peter's  stood  a  noble  fir  tree 
which  was  sawed  off  about  thirty  feet  from  the 
ground  and  an  open  turret  built  thereon,  in 
which  was  placed  a  bell  given  by  the  Sunday- 
school  of  St.  Peter's,  Philadelphia.  The  rings 
of  the  tree  were  counted  and  showed  it  to  be 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  old.  St. 
Peter's,  Tacoma,  therefore  claims  to  have  the 
oldest  bell-tower  in  the  United  States. 

Another  honored  name  is  that  of  the  Eev. 
Dr.  Nevius  who,  in  1873,  resigned  the  rector- 
A  Noted  ship   of  Trinity   Church,   Portland, 

Pioneer  ^^^    largcst    parish   in    Oregon,    in 

order  to  give  himself  to  the  work  of  a  pioneer 
missionary.  In  places  where  no  other  mission- 
ary of  the  Church  had  ever  gone  he  worked  for 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         155 

self  out  so  thinly  over  such  an  area,  not  much 
of  him  is  left  in  any  particular  place.''  He 
died  in  1867,  remembered  for  his  great  earnest- 
ness, energy,  and  personal  holiness.  He  had 
fought  the  overwhelming  conditions  of  his  im- 
mense field,  had  struggled  with  the  scarcity  of 
men  and  resources,  and  while  it  was  not  given 
to  him  to  leave  behind  the  record  in  material 
things  which  other  more  fortunate  bishops  have 
done,  he  at  least  had  faithfully  planted  the  seed 
which  sprung  up  and  bore  fruit  for  later 
reapers. 

After  the  death  of  Bishop  Scott  in  1867  this 
northern  country  was  without  episcopal  over- 
sight until  in  1869  Bishop  B.  Wis  tar 

Bishop  Morris  -\r  >  ■,  n    t 

Morns  reached  the  field,  where  for 
thirty-seven  years  he  gave  himself  to  laying 
foundations  and  extending  the  borders  of  the 
Church.  Bishop  Morris  will  always  be  grate- 
fully and  lovingly  remembered  in  the  far  North- 
west. His  name  was  a  household  word  among 
the  pioneer  families  of  the  state.  He  was  pe- 
culiarly fitted  for  the  work  of  a  pioneer  bishop, 
who  must  be  in  journeyings  oft  and  in  labors 
most  abundant.  St.  Helen's  Hall  for  girls  and 
the  Good  Samaritan  Hospital,  the  thriving 
parishes  and  missions  in  Portland  and  other 
cities,  and  the  little  churches  which  he  built 
everywhere  throughout  his  jurisdiction  bear 
testimony  to  his  faithfulness. 


156      The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

In  Washington  as  well  as  Oregon  the  in- 
fluence of  Bishop  Morris's  care  was  manifest. 
Something  had  been  done  in  Bishop 
Washington  g^ott's  day.  Two  or  three  faithful 
clergy  had  labored  there,  conspicuous  among 
them  the  Eev.  P.  E.  Hyland,  who  for  years 
rendered  the  noblest  kind  of  pioneer  service. 
When  Seattle  was  but  a  village  of  a  few  hun- 
dred inhabitants  it  had  built  a  church  and  called 
a  rector,  and  through  Mr.  Hyland's  influence 
in  old  Tacoma,  a  mere  village,  a  little  church 
was  put  up  in  three  days,  some  of  the  mill  men 
giving  their  labor  and  some  their  money,  while 
the  mill  furnished  the  lumber.  Close  by  this 
church  of  St.  Peter's  stood  a  noble  fir  tree 
which  was  sawed  off  about  thirty  feet  from  the 
ground  and  an  open  turret  built  thereon,  in 
which  was  placed  a  bell  given  by  the  Sunday- 
school  of  St.  Peter's,  Philadelphia.  The  rings 
of  the  tree  were  counted  and  showed  it  to  be 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  old.  St. 
Peter's,  Tacoma,  therefore  claims  to  have  the 
oldest  bell-tower  in  the  United  States. 

Another  honored  name  is  that  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Nevius  who,  in  1873,  resigned  the  rector- 
A  Noted  s^^P   ^^  Trinity   Church,   Portland, 

Pioneer  |.]^^    largest    parish   in    Oregon,  jn 

order  to  give  himself  to  the  work  of  a  pioneer 
missionary.  In  places  where  no  other  mission- 
ary of  the  Church  had  ever  gone  he  worked  for 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         157 

forty  years,  opening  new  fields  wherever  the 
opportunity  presented  itself.  He  was  the  first 
Church  clergyman  to  reside  beyond  the  moun- 
tains in  the  present  district  of  Eastern  Oregon. 
Six  of  its  first  eleven  churches  were  built  by 
him.  In  1879  he  passed  over  into  Washington 
and  did  a  like  work  there,  where  six  other 
churches  and  many  missions  begun  by  him  bear 
testimony  to  his  zeal  for  the  extension  of  the 
Kingdom.  In  the  fiftieth  year  of  his  ministry 
he  retired  from  active  missionary  work  and  be- 
came, curiously  enough,  the  priest  in  charge 
of  old  St.  Peter's  Church  with  its  fir  tree  bell- 
tower,  built  by  his  faithful  predecessor  fifty 
years  before. 

To  lives  such  as  these  is  due  whatever  of  sta- 
bility and  power  the  Church  possesses  in  these 
new  lands.  But  the  day  of  opportunity  is  by 
no  means  past.  In  some  places  it  is  just 
dawning. 

The  present  problem,  though  slightly  differ- 
ent, is  not  less  formidable  than  that  of  an 
The  Present  earlier  day.  Then  it  was  a  matter 
Problem  ^£  ministry  to  the  scattered  and  of 

planting  the  Church  in  little  hamlets  which 
hoped  to  become  great  cities  but  as  yet  pos- 
sessed little  to  foretell  their  future.  To-day  it 
is  a  question  of  meeting  and  winning  the  in- 
coming thousands  in  localities  about  whose  fu- 


158      The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

ture  importance  there  can  be  but  little  doubt. 

Bishop  Wells,  of  Spokane — our  missionary 
district  in  Eastern  Washington — gives  in- 
stances of  this.  ^^I  went,"  he  says,  **a  few 
years  ago  to  a  place  called  Northport,  which 
was  a  hamlet  just  coming  into  being.  They 
asked  for  a  church  and  a  clergyman.  I  said: 
*  Don't  you  have  services  hereV  They  said: 
^No,  there  never  had  been  a  minister  of  any 
kind  here  until  you  came.'  *But,'  said  I,  ^the 
town  is  too  small  for  a  clergyman.  A  few 
years  from  now,  when  it  grows  larger,  I  will 
try  to  send  you  one. '  The  next  year  I  went  up 
and  they  claimed  to  have  a  thousand  inhabi- 
tants and  did  have  a  Presbyterian  minister. 

*^A  man  whom  I  knew  was  on  the  cars  with 
me  one  day.  I  asked  him  where  he  was  going. 
He  said :  '  To  Zillah. '  '  Zillah ;  where  is  Zillah  ? ' 
I  asked.  He  replied:  'Oh,  there  isn't  any  such 
place,  but  I  am  going  to  start  a  town  by  that 
name  and  I  want  you  to  come  and  build  us  a 
church  and  send  us  a  minister.'  'Well,'  I  said, 
'how  many  people  are  there  now?'  'Oh,'  he 
said,  '  there  isn  't  anybody  now,  but  we  will  have 
them  there  soon  enough. '  The  train  stopped  in 
the  middle  of  the  prairie,  where  there  was  no 
house  in  sight  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach; 
the  man  gathered  up  a  great  bundle  of  stakes, 
shouldered  a  surveying  instrument  and  got  off. 
A  year  from  that  time  I  met  the  same  man 


William  Ingraham  Kip,  first 
Bishop  of  California 


Benjamin    Wistar   Morris,    second 
Bishop  of  Oregon 


Bishop   Nichols   of   California  Bishop  Spalding  of  Utah 


PAST  AND  PRESENT  LEADERS  IN  THE  FAR  WEST 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         159 

again  going  to  Zillah.  *Well,'  I  said,  ^how  is 
your  town  getting  along  T  ^Oh,  it  is  first  rate.^ 
*  Don 't  yon  want  a  clergyman  there  now  ? '  '  No, ' 
he  said,  *yon  are  too  late.  Other  people  are 
going  to  build  us  a  church  and  send  a  minister, 
and  we  don't  want  more  than  one  at  present 
until  we  get  larger.'  And  so  the  opportunities 
come  and  go,  and  the  bishop  has  to  turn  his 
back  upon  them  because  he  cannot  get  help 
enough  to  send  clergymen  and  build  churches, 
even  in  the  larger  and  more  important  cities 
of  his  jurisdiction." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  tell  here  the  story 
of  the  Pacific  Coast.  We  can  only  say  that 
Bummarjof  there  are  (1911)  five  dioceses  and 
Results  three     missionary     districts,     with 

eight  bishops,  300  clergy  and  35,000  communi- 
cants, where  Bishop  Kip,  a  little  more  than 
half  a  century  before,  found  one  clergyman  and 
thirty-nine  communicants  in  California,  and 
Bishop  Scott  three  clergymen  and  twenty  com- 
municants in  Oregon. 

Ill 

This  increase  in  half  a  century  is  not  out  of 
proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  country;  in- 
deed we  have  not  kept  pace  with  it.  The 
Church  is  by  no  means  a  dominant  factor  on 


160       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent  • 

the  Pacific  Coast.  The  reasons  for  this  will  be 
found  in  certain  characteristics  which  are  in 
a  sense  peculiar  to  this  country  and  which  may 
be  stated  thus: 

(1)  It  is  a  land  of  marvellous  beauty  and 
diversity,  with  its  plains  and  mountains,  its 
Ardent  mighty  forests  and  its  great  sea.  It 

Materialism        j^g  ^  j^^j^^  q£  wcalth  and  plenty.   The 

gold  dug  out  of  its  rocks  and  rivers  is  the  least 
of  its  resources.  It  is  a  land  of  eager  and  ag- 
gressive people.  It  is  also  a  land  of  idols.  It 
has  worshipped,  and  still  loves  to  worship,  the 
Golden  Calf;  by  which  we  mean  that  perhaps 
more  than  any  section  of  the  West  the  Coast 
country  is  the  country  of  ardent  materialism. 
The  claims  of  religion  sit  lightly  upon  its  eager 
throngs.  Material  opportunity,  physical  well- 
being,  the  love  of  pleasure  and  the  lure  of  gain 
are  always  before  their  eyes;  which  of  course 
only  makes  it  the  more  urgent  that  the  message 
of  the  Church  shall  reach  them. 

This  is  not  a  difficulty  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
alone.  Wherever  a  community  has  sprung  up 
under  such  conditions — if  ever  before  there 
were  conditions  quite  so  striking — the  god  of 
this  world  has  blinded  its  eyes,  and  the  re- 
ligion of  Christ  has  found  great  and  serious 
work  to  do. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Pacific  Coast 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         161 

has  looked  too  much  to  the  Church  in  the  East 
for  its  support.  Men  ask — and  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  they  do  ask — why  the  Golden  West, 
which  claims  so  much  for  herself,  has  not 
sooner  cared  for  herself  religiously  and  become 
a  greater  factor  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
Church's  campaign  elsewhere.  No  doubt  there 
is  ground  for  such  a  question,  but  only  those 
who  are  familiar  with  conditions  can  fully 
realize  under  what  difficulties  even  the  present 
achievement  has  been  made.  It  is  also  true 
that  the  Coast  country  and  the  Church  estab- 
lished therein  is  realizing  its  better  self.  Every 
year  sees  it  grow  in  this  knowledge.  The  day 
is  not  far  distant  when  the  general  Church  will 
feel,  as  in  some  measure  she  is  already  feeling, 
the  returning  wave  of  gratitude  and  coopera- 
tion which  shall  recompense  her  for  all  that  she 
has  done  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

(2)  The  Pacific  Coast  has  a  peculiar  char- 
acter because  it  is  the  meeting  place  of  the 

The  Influence  ^^^^  ^^^  Wcst.  lu  California  the 
of  the  Orient  flavor  of  the  old  Spanish  occupation 
still  lingers.  It  seems  in  some  ways  scarcely 
a  homogeneous  part  of  our  country.  To  this 
is  added  the  influence  of  a  close  touch  with  the 
Orient.  The  great  East  is  just  at  hand,  and 
from  it  there  come  to  take  their  places  in  the 
daily  life  of  the  people  influences  and  problems 
which  are  peculiarly  Oriental.     To  these  the 


162       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Pacific  Coast  is  exposed  as  the  Atlantic  has 
never  been.  There  is  no  barrier  of  kindred 
peoples  like  the  European  nations  interposed 
between  the  West  and  the  East  as  they  face 
one  another  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  The 
Orient,  with  all  that  it  means  of  opportunity 
and  difficulty,  of  inspiration  and  danger,  is 
brought  by  the  tides  of  commerce  and  the  great 
harbors  of  trade  to  the  very  doorway  of  our 
Pacific  ports.  Such  an  environment  has  a  real 
influence  upon  the  American  type  which  is 
there  being  produced.* 

(3)  Already  the  Pacific  Coast  has,  and  it  will 

increasingly  have,  the  problem  of  the   great 

cities.     They  are  and  will  be  great, 

Great  Cities  i  i         ^  en  i 

not  only  because  oi  the  country 
which  lies  about  them,  but  of  the  countries 
which  lie  beyond.  Conspicuously  they  will  be 
the  ports  of  the  nations.  Like  Asher  of  old 
their  *^  dwelling  is  upon  the  sea-shore  and  they 
are  for  a  haven  of  ships."  Into  them  come  the 
silks,  teas  and  spices,  the  art  and  handicraft  of 
the  East,  together  with  the  fish  and  the  furs, 
the  gold  and  other  mineral  products  of  Alaska. 
The  human  tides  also  which  flow  through  these 

*  It  is  at  Point  Loma,  California,  that  Mrs.  Tingley,  the 
successor  of  Mmes.  Blavatsky  and  Besant,  has  planted  her 
school  of  theosophy,  and  it  is  in  Los  Angeles  that  Baba 
Bharadi,  the  Eastern  ''Holy  Man/'  finds  the  most  congenial 
atmosphere  for  teaching  the  worship  of  Krishna  in  Christian 
America. 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  163 

gateways  are  more  varied  than  anywhere 
else  in  our  country.  How  to  assimilate  and 
coordinate  these  elements  and  build  out  of 
them  a  homogeneous  people  owning  allegiance 
to  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  is  a  problem 
indeed. 

(4)  Attention  should  be  called  to  another 
problem  which  the  great  forests  and  the  min- 
Men  of  the  ^^'^^  rcsourccs  of  the  coast  lay  upon 
Wilderness         j-^^     Church — ministration    to     the 

lumbermen  and  the  scattered  miners.  We  have 
already  spoken  of  the  mining  problem  in  con- 
nection with  the  Rocky  Mountain  region,  but 
the  miner  of  the  coast  presents  a  different 
phase  of  the  life.  Particularly  in  Alaska  he  is 
still  an  independent  person  seeking  his  own 
fortune,  wandering  at  will  and  prospecting 
where  he  chooses.  The  man  who  tries  to  win 
the  miner  and  the  lumberman — migratory,  pre- 
occupied and  rough-living  men  that  they  are — 
faces  no  easy  task. 

(5)  The  seamen  of  the  Pacific  Coast  present 
a  great  opportunity.  Its  limited  number  of 
The  Men  of  ports  and  its  marvellous  shipping 
the  Sea  interests  call  for  ministry  to  ''those 
who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships  and  occupy 
their  business  in  the  great  waters.''  Because 
of  the  conditions  prevailing  such  ministry  was 
greatly  needed.  Through  the  Seaman's  Insti- 
tute a  noble  work  of  rescue,  helpfulness  and 


164       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

cheer  is  nnder  way,  and  deserves  the  sjrmpathy 
and  cooperation  of  the  entire  Church. 

(6)  There  is  also  the  problem  of  the  Ori- 
ental in  the  West,  which  as  yet  the  Church  has 
mv  n  •  . ,        scarcely  touched.     Whatever  influ- 

The  Oriental  ''    ^ 

in  the  West  QTiGQ  tlic  immigTation  laws  may  have 
in  the  future,  it  is  true  that  the  Pacific  Coast 
to-day  has  foreign  missions  of  perhaps  the 
most  difficult  type.  We  ought  to  be  able  to  take 
these  Chinamen  and  Japanese,  Hawaiians,  Ko- 
reans and  others,  who  have  come  to  a  Chris- 
tian land,  and  mark  their  lives  with  the  Chris- 
tian sign.  But  it  is  all  very  intricate  and  dif- 
ficult. Easier  and  more  straightforward  is  the 
work  in  the  country  villages  of  China  and 
Japan.  This  has  been,  thus  far,  one  of  the 
Church's  failures.  We  have  these  people  at 
our  very  doors ;  if  not  members  of  our  house- 
hold they  are  at  least  inhabitants  of  our  prem- 
ises, and  we  have  not  yet  devised  an  efficient 
and  aggressive  means  of  bringing  them  to 
Christ. 

How  great  a  thing  might  be  done  toward 
helping  to  Christianize  the  Orient  could  we  lay 
hold  upon  these  Orientals !  Might  we  not  thus 
establish  in  this  land  a  base  from  which  to  sup- 
ply Christian  influence  and  the  Christian  men 
and  women  who,  going  back  to  their  own  peo- 
ple, would  accomplish  more   with  them  than 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  165 

foreigners  can  ever  hope  to  do?  The  Church 
of  the  Pacific  Coast  should  be  aided  and  en- 
couraged in  its  wish  to  perform  such  service. 

The  waters  of  the  Pacific  placed  a  boundary 
to  a  certain  phase  of  our  domestic  mission  work 

Following  The  ^the  task  of  following  the  emigrant. 
Emigrant  rpj^^    ^.j.^'!    ^^g    eudcd ;    wlicu    the 

Church  made  her  next  advance  upon  this  conti- 
nent it  was  by  way  of  the  sea,  and  she  sought, 
not  her  own  scattered  children,  but  a  strange 
people.  It  is  profitable,  therefore,  to  look  back- 
ward from  this  point  for  a  moment  and  take 
some  account  of  the  long  march. 

We  know  no  better  summary  of  the  matter 
than  that  given  by  Rev.  Dr.  McConnell,  in  his 
History  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church: 
^^The  Churches  forces  moved  out  under  the  new 
leaders  to  win  the  mighty  West.  To  trace  in 
detail  the  steps  by  which  they  covered  the  prai- 
ries, climbed  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  went 
with  the  gold-hunters  to  the  Pacific,  would  re- 
quire a  volume.  The  roll  of  the  missionaries^ 
names  would  fill  a  book.  The  Church  simply 
followed  the  emigrant,  often  lagging  far  be- 
hind him,  but  keeping  him  in  sight  while  her 
strength  would  hold  out.  When  he  had  built  his 
cabin  she  sought  him  out  in  it.  When  the  great 
cities  sprang  up  in  the  wilderness  she  entered 
into  them  and  built  her  house.    When  the  sav- 


166       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

age  Indian  was  restrained  and  fixed  to  a  per- 
manent abode  she  did  her  share  to  make  him 
human  and  Christian.  She  met  a  various  wel- 
come for  her  proffered  gifts.  Peoples  who 
knew  neither  her  nor  her  fathers  founded  new 
communities,  and  she  could  not  speak  their 
speech  nor  win  their  friendship.  Other 
churches  entered  the  new  field  beside  her,  be- 
fore her  and  behind  her.  She  often  failed 
where  they  succeeded.  She  often  succeeded 
after  their  success  had  changed  to  failure. 
It  may  fairly  be  said  of  her  that  she  has 
striven  with  an  honest  heart  to  do  her  share 
in  making  and  keeping  the  new  American 
Christian.^' 

IV 

And  now  we  turn  for  the  remainder  of  our 
chapter  to  the  latest,  the  most  unique,  and  from 
Aiaska-"The  ^  missiouary  point  of  view,  the  most 
Great  Country"  interesting  of  our  territorial  expan- 
sions— the  well-known,  unknown,  forbidding, 
fascinating  land  of  Alaska. 

For  twenty  years  after  the  acquiring  of  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Oregon  Territory  no  further  ad- 
vance in  territorial  expansion  was  made  or 
dreamed  of.  The  nation  was  perfectly  satis- 
fied with  its  boundaries  and  was  even  averse 
to  any  enlargement  of  them.  It  was  not  by 
any  popular  demand,  but  rather  against  the 


Rev.    John    IV.    Chapman 


Rev.    Octavius    Parker 


Ice   on   the    Yukon   breaking  up.     Archdeacon  Stuck   reconnoitring 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         167 

tide  of  public  opinion,  that  Seward  in  1867 
bought  Alaska  from  Eussia.  The  inner  his- 
tory of  this  transaction  is  not  known.  Only 
Seward  could  have  accomplished  it.  There  are 
historians  who  think  it  to  have  been  a  round- 
about way  of  paying  Eussia  for  moral  support 
given,  and  material  aid  which  she  stood  ready 
to  furnish,  during  the  Civil  War.  A  bill  for 
such  services  could  not  be  presented  to  Con- 
gress and  would  not  have  been  allowed  by  that 
body,  but  a  distant  and  undesirable  territory, 
which  Eussia  felt  to  be  a  burden  on  her  hands, 
could  be  taken  for  a  consideration.  Perhaps 
some  motive  of  this  sort,  rather  than  the  far- 
seeing  wisdom  with  which  they  have  been  cre- 
dited, moved  Seward  and  Sunmer  to  urge  the 
purchase.  It  is  certain  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
nation  were  against  it.  It  was  ridiculed  as 
Seward's  folly — **a  country  fit  only  for  a 
polar  bear  garden. ' '  But  now,  in  a  single  year, 
the  products  of  its  mines  and  fisheries  alone 
are  almost  four  times  the  $7,200,000  for  which 
it  was  purchased. 

Lying  in  a  far  corner  of  the  map  it  is  hard  to 
realize  how  fully  Alaska  justifies  its  name. 
Geographical  wMch  mcaus  ''the  great  country.'' 
Features  j^g    area   is   more   than   two-thirds 

that  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  with  this  accession  of  territory  the 


168       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

centre  of  our  possessions,  measured  from  east 
to  west,  was  removed  from  Omaha,  Nebraska, 
to  a  point  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  a  full  day's  sail 
west  of  San  Francisco. 

Because  of  its  geographical  features  and  its 
means  of  communication  the  territory  of  Alaska 
falls  naturally  into  three  divisions:  (1)  South- 
eastern Alaska,  the  narrow  strip  lying  along 
the  Pacific  coast  and  almost  touching  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  the  United  States.  This  has  a 
climate  not  so  severe  as  that  of  New  England. 

(2)  Then  there  is  the  great  Yukon  basin 
drained  by  that  wonderful  river  and  its  tribu- 
taries. The  way  into  this  region  is  along  the 
waters  or  over  the  frozen  surface  of  these 
rivers,  which  furnish  a  waterway  of  3,500  miles. 

(3)  Off  to  the  north,  stretching  to  the  Polar 
Sea,  is  Arctic  Alaska,  the  home  of  the  Esquimau 
and  the  Indian,  where  for  the  most  part  sleds 
and  snow-shoes  furnish  the  means  of  trans- 
portation. 

The  Russian  Church  was  naturally  the  first 
to  minister  in  this  one-time  Russian  territory. 
Mission  Work  Scvoral  of  their  quaint  and  pictur- 
in  Alaska  esquo  buildiugs  remain  in  the  towns. 

Their  chief  missionary  efforts — most  admir- 
able, and  still  in  evidence — were  confined 
to  the  centres  where  their  military  posts  ex- 
isted.   The  Presbyterians,  coming  in  1877,  are 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         169 

well  represented  in  the  mission  work  of  Alaska, 
while  the  English  Church,  through  its  bishop 
of  the  McKenzie  River  and  its  mission  of  the 
C.  M.  S.  conducted  by  William  Duncan  at  Metla- 
katla,  began  work  before  our  arrival. 

It  was  not  until  1886  that  the  Rev.  Octavius 
Parker  of  Oregon  offered  himself  as  our  first 
„   „  ^  missionary  to  Alaska.    That  fall  he 

Our  Work  ^ 

Begins  went,    uudor    appomtment    of    the 

Board,  as  a  Government  teacher  and  mission- 
ary to  open  work  among  the  Indians  of  that 
country.  St.  Michael's  Island,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Yukon  in  Norton  Sound,  was  his  land- 
ing-place, and  here  he  spent  the  greater  portion 
of  the  winter.  It  was  a  post  of  the  Alaska 
Commercial  Company,  which  in  that  day  held 
the  same  relation  to  the  country  that  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company  had  to  the  Northwest  at  an 
earlier  period.  On  St.  Michael's  Island  his- 
tory repeated  itself.  The  treatment  which 
Whitman  and  other  missionaries  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was 
meted  out  to  this  pioneer.  Mr.  Parker  says: 
*' While  outwardly  we  were  treated  with  cold 
civility  we  found  ourselves  practically  prison- 
ers on  sufferance,  unable  to  leave  the  island. 
The  attitude  and  tactics  of  the  Company  were 
everywhere  evident.  To  educate  the  Indian 
was  to  make  him  too  wise,  so  that  he  would 
know  the  difference  between  eleven  cents'  worth 


170       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

of  provisions  and  the  $1.25  which  ought  to  be 
paid  for  a  fox-skin.'^  The  chief  agent  of  the 
Company  was  overheard  instructing  his  factor 
as  follows :  * '  The  Eev.  Mr.  Parker  and  family 
will  disembark  here  to-morrow.  He  has  let- 
ters of  credit  on  the  Company.  You  will  there- 
fore supply  him  with  what  he  needs  and  show 
him  every  courtesy'' — a  pause — ^'but  you  will 
spare  no  expense  and  leave  no  stone  unturned 
to  crush  him." 

Mr.  Parker  was  not  a  man  to  be  crushed.  He 
accepted  an  invitation  from  the  Indians  at  An- 
The  First  ^ik  and  broke  away  from  St.  Mich- 

poothoid  aePs,  risking  his  life  freely  among  a 

people  none  too  steadfast  in  their  friendship, 
whose  minds  had  been  poisoned  with  evil  re- 
ports concerning  him  circulated  by  men  of  his 
own  race.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  he  was  the 
only  doctor  within  a  stretch  of  2,000  miles  may 
have  saved  him  from  an  end  like  Whitman's. 

It  was  a  hard  winter.  Somehow  it  was  lived 
through,  and  in  June  of  the  following  year  he 
was  joined  by  the  Eev.  John  W.  Chapman.  To- 
gether they  established  at  Anvik  the  mother 
church  of  Alaska.  Mr.  Parker  says  of  Mr. 
Chapman,  "He  was  as  fine  a  selection  as  the 
Church  ever  made;  fit  for  the  Master's  service 
physically,  mentally  and  spiritually" — ^which 
has  been  proved  by  his  long  years  of  fruitful 
service  in  Anvik. 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         171 

In  1888  Alaska  was  made  a  missionary  dis- 
trict, but  no  bishop  was  elected.  Mr.  Parker 
Out  of  Dark-  retired  from  the  work  and  for  a  year 
ness— Into  Light  -^j.  Chapman  was  our  only  mission- 
ary in  Alaska.  From  this  first  precarious  foot- 
hold large  results  have  followed.  The  patient 
life  of  one  man  and  his  steadfast  influence  in  a 
single  community  have  wrought  a  wonderful 
transformation.  In  seeking  Christ's  children 
he  has  brought  them  literally  *  ^  out  of  darkness 
into  marvellous  light'' — out  of  their  under- 
ground hovels  into  the  open  air  and  sunshine ; 
out  of  their  superstition  and  ignorance  into 
healthful  knowledge  and  a  wider  life.  This 
people  of  mixed  blood — Esquimau  and  Indian — 
a  hybrid  race  near  enough  to  the  coast  to  fall 
under  the  evil  influence  of  the  earlier  voyagers 
and  Eussian  convicts,  presented  as  hard  a  prob- 
lem in  civilization  as  any  Christian  missionary 
has  ever  faced.  They  lived  in  underground 
hovels,  in  darkness  and  dirt.  ^^The  whole 
place  was  a  human  sty,"  says  a  member  of  the 
first  United  States  Geological  Survey.  ^'Most 
of  the  people  whom  we  saw  had  the  appearance 
of  being  diseased.  Whole  rows  of  men,  maimed 
and  halt,  blind  and  scrofulous,  sunned  them- 
selves at  the  openings  of  their  underground 
houses.  We  were  glad  to  turn  away  from  the 
most  dismal  and  degraded  set  of  human  beings 
it  had  ever  been  my  lot  to  see."    *^ To-day," 


172       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

says  Archdeacon  Stuck,  ^^the  natives  live  in 
substantial  cabins  of  logs  or  lumber,  sit  on 
chairs  and  eat  at  tables.  Around  numbers  of 
the  cabins  are  carefully  tended  vegetable 
patches.  A  transformation  has  come  upon  An- 
vik,  and  it  is  the  work  of  Mr.  Chapman  and  his 
assistants. '^ 

This  is  a  fair  sample  of  what  the  Church  has 
done  in  scores  of  places  among  the  Indians  of 
Alaska ;  but  this  of  course  is  only  the  outward 
change.  It  has  been  accompanied  by  an  in- 
ward transformation  even  more  absolute.  The 
centre  and  soul  of  all  that  was  accomplished  in 
Anvik  is  the  little  church,  erected  in  1894  by 
the  United  Offering  of  the  Woman's  Auxiliary. 
From  it  the  light  of  the  Gospel  has  shown  forth 
into  all  the  land. 

Far  to  the  north,  inside  the  Arctic  Circle, 
two  hundred  miles  beyond  Bering  Strait,  on  a 
Our  "Farthest  hloak  capo  wMch  juts  out  iuto  the 
North"  Arctic     Ocean,     the     Church    next 

planted  her  standard ;  and  it  was  a  layman  who 
for  nineteen  years  kept  it  displayed.  Lieu- 
tent-Commander  Stockton  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  an  earnest  Churchman,  had  in  one  of  his 
cruises  been  sadly  impressed  by  the  degraded 
and  hopeless  condition  of  the  Esquimau  natives 
at  Point  Hope.  Not  only  were  they  bearing  the 
blight  of  primitive  ignorance,  but  they  were 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  173 

exposed  to  the  vicious  influence  of  white  men 
from  the  crews  of  whaling  vessels.  Com- 
mander Stockton  urged  the  Board  of  Missions 
to  send  there  a  medical  missionary,  and  Dr. 
John  B.  Driggs  of  Wilmington,  Delaware,  of- 
fered his  services. 

In  July,  1890,  he  was  landed  with  his  small 
stores  upon  the  beach,  among  a  strange  and  bar- 
barous people  of  whose  language  he  knew  not  a 
syllable;  without  companion,  house,  or  contact 
with  civilization;  knowing  that  he  was  cut  off 
from  the  world  until  the  vessel  should  return  a 
year  later.    Here  somehow  he  made  his  home, 
and  lived  on  through  the  long  winter  of  inter- 
minable darkness  and  the  short  summer  of  un- 
ending sunshine,  for  nearly  twenty  years,  alone 
at  the  top  of  the  world.     Only  twice  during  all 
this  period  did  he  come  out  on  furlough.     On 
the  last  of  these  occasions  Mr.  E.  J.  Knapp  vol- 
unteered to  supply  his  place,  which  he  did  most 
admirably.    When  Dr.  Driggs  retired  from  the 
work,  the  Eev.  A.  R.  Hoare  was  sent  to  build 
upon  the   foundations   laid  by  him   and   Mr. 
Knapp.     The  results  were  marvellous.    During 
a  visitation  in  1909,  extending  over  five  days. 
Bishop   Eowe   confirmed   eighty  persons.    JEe 
writes  as  follows   concerning  his  experiences 
there : 

''It  was  a  surprise  and  a  joy  to  hear  that 
congregation  of  Esquunaux  able  to  say  or  sing 


174       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

the  responses  of  all  the  usual  services,  the  can- 
ticles, psalter,  and  about  fifty  or  more  hymns. 
I  don't  know  whether  it  would  be  possible  to 
find  another  congregation  anywhere  so  well 
trained.  I  heard  this  congregation  repeat  the 
catechism  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  al- 
most perfectly.  I  confirmed  eighty  and  it  was 
interesting  to  know  that  a  whole  village  of 
adults,  with  very  few  exceptions,  received  the 
Holy  Communion." 

Two  vantage  points  had  thus  been  gained  in 
Alaska,  both  in  the  coast  region.  The  vast  in- 
The  Great  terior  had  not  been  touched  by  us, 

Interior  ^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^y.  considerable  degree 

by  others.  The  next  move  of  the  Church  was 
a  wise  and  timely  one.  A  mission  was  planted 
at  Tanana,  six  hundred  miles  up  the  river  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  Yukon  district.  Its  po- 
sition at  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana  Eiver,  on 
which  a  little  later  the  great  gold  discoveries 
around  Fairbanks  were  made,  gave  it  strategic 
importance.  Here  the  Kev.  Jules  L.  Prevost 
was  for  fifteen  years  both  priest  and  physician 
of  the  surrounding  Indian  tribes.  On  foot,  in 
canoe,  and  later  in  his  little  missionary  launch, 
he  traversed  the  hills  and  the  streams,  winning 
a  great  company  to  Christ  and  His  Church. 
This  mission  has  baptized  more  than  3,000  In- 
dians, living  over  many  hundred  miles  of  coun- 


PETER  TRIMBLE  ROWE 

Fhst  Bishop  of  Alaska 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         175 

try.  Some  have  been  known  to  come  five  hun- 
dred miles  that  they  might  spend  a  few  weeks 
at  the  mission  and  have  the  advantage  of  the 
Church 's  ministrations ;  and  they  have  brought 
their  dead  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  for 
Christian  burial. 

These  three  men  were  the  staunch  pioneers 
of  our  work  in  Alaska,  and  the  staff  over  which, 
on  St.  Andrew  ^s  Day,  1895,  Peter  Trimble 
Eowe  was  consecrated  bishop. 

The  Church  historian  is  at  a  loss  how 
he  may  tell  the  story  of  Bishop  Eowe  with 
Peter  Trimble       truth,   aud  at  the  samo  time  with 

Rowe — First  t  i  •  ah  i  i 

Bishop  moderation.    All  men  love  a  hero — 

the  better  if  he  be  a  modest  hero — and  the 
well-informed  Churchman  would  not  hesitate 
if  asked  to  name  the  Church's  most  conspicuous 
hero. 

Bishop  Rowe  had  unusual  preparation  for 
his  work.  Five  years  on  an  Indian  reservation 
in  Ontario  and  nine  more  at  the  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  in  Michigan,  gave  him  a  varied  experi- 
ence. The  following  of  the  trail  in  the  wilder- 
ness, contact  with  pioneers  and  savages,  canoe 
travel  and  snow-shoeing,  the  camp  under  the 
open  sky — he  knew  them  all.  The  zest  of  con- 
quest was  born  in  him  and  he  welcomed  hard- 
ship in  his  Master's  service. 

With  the  coming  of  Bishop  Rowe  to  Alaska 


176       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

a    great    enlargement    of    the    work    began. 
„  .,        Hitherto  we  had  ministered  only,  or 

On  the  Trail  "^ ' 

of  the  Prospector  chiefly,  to  tho  natives ;  all  our  mis- 
sions were  planted  with  that  in  view.  But  gold 
had  been  discovered  in  the  Klondike  region 
and  at  once  Alaska  became  to  the  imagination 
of  the  country  what  California  had  been  fifty 
years  before.  Vastly  more  difficult  of  access 
and  many  times  larger  in  area,  it  was  not 
flooded  as  California  had  been,  but  thousands 
were  pouring  in — the  great  majority  of  them 
to  meet,  alas !  only  danger  and  disappointment, 
if  not  death.  This  was  a  compelling  call  to  the 
Church;  it  was  the  cry  of  our  own  race  and 
blood.  These  followers  of  the  trail  the  Church 
must  follow;  she  could  not,  without  peril  of 
unfaithfulness,  permit  these  seekers  after  gold 
to  forget  the  eternal  riches  of  Christian  love 
and  grace. 

And  so,  while  still  pushing  forward  the  work 
on  behalf  of  the  native  peoples,  the  bishop  also 
turned  his  attention  to  the  physical  and 
spiritual  needs  of  the  white  explorers  and 
settlers.  Hospital  after  hospital  sprang  up, 
nurses  and  teachers  came.  Where  the  need 
was  greatest  the  bishop  and  his  helpers  might 
always  be  found.  He  cheered  and  inspired; 
men  believed  in  and  admired  him,  and  there 
was  no  better  name  to  conjure  with  than  that 
of  Bishop  Rowe — admittedly  *^the  best  musher 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         177 

ill  Alaska,"*  conspicuous  for  courage  in  a  land 
of  brave  men. 

A  gold  strike  was  made  at  Nome,  and  with 
the  first  rush  of  eager  prospectors  went  in  Mr. 
Prevost,  sent  by  the  bishop,  who  soon  followed 
and  aided  with  his  own  hands  in  the  building 
of  the  church.  Fairbanks  was  manned  and 
equipped.  Another  rush  into  Cordova,  and 
though  the  saloon  men  were  bidding  for  the 
only  available  lumber,  the  bishop  got  it  first 
to  build  a  clubhouse  for  men,  destined  to  be  the 
only  competitor  of  fourteen  saloons. 

So  he  goes  back  and  forth  across  his  great 
district,  up  and  down  its  rivers  in  the  short 
summer  time — formerly  by  boat  or  canoe,  but 
now  in  his  launch,  the  ''Pelican."  In  the  win- 
ter he  is  away  across  the  trackless  wilderness, 
a  thousand  or  two  thousand  miles,  behind  his 
dogs,  cheerily  facing  his  hardships  and  making 
light  of  his  dangers,  but  none  the  less  carrying 
his  life  in  his  hand  as  he  goes  about  his  daily 
work. 

Here  is  a  sample  trip — unusually  short  and 
uneventful — taken  in  the  spring  of  1911.  The 
A  8am  le  accouut  is  iu  the  bishop 's  own  words 

Journey  from  a  privatc  letter: 

*  * '  To  mush, ' '  in  Alaskan  parlance  means  to  ' '  hit  the 
trail. "  It  is  derived  from  the  call  to  the  dogs :  ' '  Mush  on !  " 
which  is  doubtless  a  corruption  of  the  French  voyageur's  com- 
mand ' '  Marchons  !  " 


178       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

Paul  Williams,  a  native,  came  from  Nenana  with  a  team  of 
six  dogs  and  met  me  at  Gulkana.  There  we  loaded  up  with  sup- 
plies for  a  six  weeks'  journey.  Our  course  was  off  the  ordi- 
nary travel,  so  we  had  to  break  trail.  We  cached  food  for 
the  dogs  and  ourselves  in  a  tree  at  each  camping-place  so  as 
to  have  some  upon  our  return,  but  wolverines  in  some  places 
got  away  with  our  caches  and  we  went  hungry.  The  wolverines 
are  foxy  robbers  and  nasty  fellows  to  meet.  We  saw  nine  at 
comfortable  distances,  but  left  them  alone.  The  snow-shoeing 
was  *■  ^  fierce  " ;  I  went  ahead  and  broke  trail  for  the  dogs.  Soon 
one  instep  got  inflamed  and  I  had  trouble.  Every  night  I 
used  a  snow  bandage  to  lessen  the  inflammation. 

We  camped  at  night — had  a  tent  and  stove.  One  day  Paul 
broke  through  the  ice  into  a  swift,  deep,  dangerous  river.  He 
had  his  snow-shoes  on  at  the  time  and  an  axe  in  his  hand, 
which  he  lost.  I  kicked  off  my  snow-shoes  and  with  pole  in 
hand  crept  to  Paul's  rescue.  I  got  him  out,  though  I  was 
afraid  that  I  would  go  in.  It  was  cold,  but  I  built  a  fire  and 
he  changed  his  clothes.  Some  days  after  we  would  have  had 
trouble  again,  but  being  ahead  I  sounded  the  ice,  found  it  bad, 
backed  off,  and  together  we  built  a  bridge.  Several  times  we 
just  escaped  snow-slides. 

The  days  passed  with  all  sorts  of  experiences  and  always 
hard  work.  We  made  the  places  we  wished  to  make — 1,000 
miles  in  all.  I  buried  a  man  who  had  frozen  to  death.  In 
some  places  the  Indians  were  so  ill  and  poor  that  their 
condition  is  pitiable.  The  Government  is  the  only  friend  which 
can  meet  their  needs,  and  our  Government  treats  the  question 
with  a  neglect  as  barbarous  as  would  a  barbarian  nation. 

We  made  as  much  as  forty  miles  some  days,  then  we  went 
down  to  about  fifteen  miles.  But  a  trip  of  that  sort  takes 
all  the  unnecessary  fat  out  of  you,  and  you  get  as  strong  as 
a  mule  and  as  hungry  as  a  bear. 

The  world  has  lavished  its  praise  upon  a  man 
who  discovered  the  North  Pole.  He  deserved 
the  applause,  though  at  best  it  was  a  some- 
what barren  exploit.    But  how  many  Church- 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific         179> 

men  realize  that  for  more  than  fifteen  years  a 
man  in  the  far  north  has  been  making  journeys 
longer  and  more  dangerous,  not  for  gold  or 
glory,  but  for  the  love  of  Christ  and  his  fellow- 
men  1 

Such  heroism  attracted  others  to  share  in 
the  bishop's  labors.  Especially  have  noble  and 
devoted  women  offered  themselves  as  nurses 
and  teachers — some  splendid  men  also,  but  far 
too  few.  Every  worker  in  Alaska  would  agree 
that  the  life  which  should  be  quoted  as  most 
typical  of  the  recent  work  is  that  of  a  woman. 

Annie  Cragg  Farthing,  sister  of  the  Bishop 
of  Montreal,  was  the  heart  and  brain  of  our 
«  J,  n  X,         work  at  St.  Mark's  Mission,  Nenana. 

God's  Gentle-  .  ' 

woman  j^  jg  ^  suprcme  power  which  is  in- 

herent in  a  gentlewoman  when  it  is  consecrated 
by  love.  That  power  she  possessed  and  used 
it  to  guide  and  save  many  a  one,  both  young  and 
old. 

The  mission  began  in  a  small  log  cabin. 
When  at  the  end  of  three  years  she  was  sud- 
denly called  to  rest  from  her  serving,  she  left 
behind  the  largest  native  mission  under  the 
Church's  care  in  Alaska,  and  from  the  small 
beginning  which  she  made  in  taking  two  little 
Indian  children  into  her  own  home,  there  had 
grown  Tortella  Hall,  where  thirty-five  Indian 
boys  and  girls  were  gathered  and  given  the  in- 
fluence of  a  Christian  home.    Literally  she  gave 


180       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

her  life  for  her  people.  It  was  after  three  days 
and  nights  at  the  bedside  of  one  of  her  chil- 
dren, acting  as  nurse  in  the  effort  to  spare 
others,  that  the  sudden  call  came  to  her.  She 
had  but  time  to  ask  that  her  love  be  given  to 
her  children  and  to  pray  that  God  would  send 
some  one  to  care  for  them. 

It  was  the  heroic  end  of  a  most  devoted  and 
consecrated  woman.  Strangely  enough,  Bishop 
Eowe,  in  New  York  City,  on  the  day  before  her 
death  was  saying  to  a  great  gathering  of 
women:  ^*A  Church  which  can  produce  such  a 
woman  as  Miss  Farthing  has  proved  that  it  is 
divinely  inspired.'' 

They  dug  her  grave  there  in  the  Arctic  wil- 
derness where  Mount  McKinley  looks  down 
from  afar.  ^^But,"  says  Archdeacon  Stuck,  ^^I 
think  the  influence  of  the  life  of  this  great  gen- 
tlewoman will  outlast  the  mountain  itself,  and 
be  active  in  the  world  when  the  mountain  is 
level  with  the  plain ;  for  the  influence  of  a  holy, 
self-sacrificing  life  never  dies.'' 

Such  was  one  of  the  women — but  only  one 
of  the  many  who  have  rallied  to  Bishop  Rowe's 
help.  Much  has  been  demanded  of  them  by  the 
conditions  under  which  they  have  lived,  and 
nobly  have  they  answered  the  demand. 

Stanch  and  true  men  are  also  aiding  the 
bishop,  whose  stories  would  be  worth  telling 


On  the  Shores  of  the  Pacific  181 

Some  Officers  did  spHCG  permit.  We  might  travel 
the  trail-  with  Archdeacon  Stuck  as 
he  goes  to  his  ministry  in  the  North.  We  might 
tell  of  the  little  rectory  in  Valdez,  or  the  ^^Eed 
Dragon'^  at  Cordova — both  of  which  are  open 
havens  of  hospitality  for  young  men  facing  the 
temptations  and  loneliness  of  the  far  North.  We 
might  visit  Betticher,  the  indefatigable  mis- 
sionary— the  eager,  tireless  human  force  which 
directs  the  splendid  work  in  the  Tanana  Val- 
ley, with  its  hospital  and  reading  rooms,  its 
schools  and  mission  churches,  its  distribution 
of  tons  of  literature  in  the  lonely  mining  camps. 
Those  who  really  desire  to  know  fully  the  story 
of  the  Alaska  mission  must  acquaint  themselves 
with  these  things  and  with  others  not  less  ad- 
mirable in  spirit  and  service. 

Whoever  does  so  will  be  amply  repaid,  for 
who  can  study  the  missions  in  Alaska  without 
The  Land  Which  ^^^^^  f  ascluatcd  by  the  picture?  The 
Casts aspeii  Arctic  uights  and  rosy  dawns;  the 
mighty  rivers  and  primeval  forests;  sturdy 
miners  wresting  from  the  earth  her  golden 
store ;  traders  and  Esquimaux  and  Indians ;  the 
new-sprung  towns  with  their  wild  license,  or 
the  lonely  camp  shut  in  by  the  wilderness  of 
trackless  snow ;  the  dog-teams  and  the  reindeer ; 
the  sturdy  sons  of  the  free  North  whose  hands 
are  so  hard,  but  whose  hearts  are  frequently  so 
soft,  and  whose  friendship  is  so  steadfast ;  and 


182       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

moving  among  them  all — ^ministering  to  them 
with  what  toil  and  pain,  under  what  discour- 
agement and  difficulty — the  hrave  nurses  and 
faithful  clergy  (alas,  how  pitiful  a  handful!) 
and  our  heroic,  hard-pressed  bishop ! 

So  does  Alaska  by  its  sheer  power  to  inspire 
and  enlist  the  Church  for  missionary  enter- 
prise repay  a  hundred-fold  that  which  has  been 
given  her. 

This  is  a  fitting  place  to  close  our  survey 
of  the  Church's  progress  on  this  continent — 
here  in  the  far  North,  where  she  is  proving  her 
power  to  minister  to  the  manifold  needs  of 
mankind,  and  where  she  seems  to  have  reached 
the  very  limit  of  the  world.  On  every  side 
stretches  the  utmost  sea  which  marks  the 
boundary  of  our  continent,  yet  to  her  it  is  not 
a  barrier  but  a  highway.  And  she  girds  her- 
self for  yet  other  conflicts  as  she  looks  steadily 
westward  where,  beyond  the  sea,  lies  Asia — 
native  land  of  the  Conquering  Christ. 


Bishop  Rowe,  Preaching  on  the  Banks  of  the   Yukon 


Anne  C.  Farthing — Buried  on  the  Battlefield 


A  LAST  WOED 

WE  have  come  a  long  journey,  following 
the  Church  in  her  endeavor  to  conquer 
the  continent  for  her  Master.  Not  al- 
ways was  she  instant  in  action,  not  always  vic- 
torious in  her  campaigns ;  but  at  least  we  may 
feel  that  she  has  not  been  altogether  forgetful 
of  her  mission,  and  may  be  stimulated  to  aid 
her  to  a  more  adequate  fulfilment. 

Never  so  widely  as  now  has  the  path  of  con- 
quest opened  before  the  Church.  For  no  other 
Christian  body  in  this  land  does  the  promise  of 
the  future  seem  more  bright.  The  contribution 
which  we  may  bring  to  the  solution  of  the  re- 
ligious problem  in  the  nation  will  be  unique 
and  valuable — if  we  ourselves  understand  it. 

This  is  the  greatest  lesson  of  the  preceding- 
pages.  The  impulses  which  sent  the  Church 
forward  came  from  a  source  deeper  than  she 
herself  clearly  understood.  When  her  acts  were 
aligned  with  the  Catholicity  of  a  primitive 
Christianity  they  were  effective  in  expanding 
her  borders.  Wherever  she  was  humbly  yet 
steadfastly  true  to  her  origin  and  her  princi- 
ples, she  succeeded;  wherever  she  ignored  or 

183 


184       The  Conquest  of  the  Continent 

forgot  them  she  failed.  Out  of  her  parochial- 
ism, into  some  realization  of  herself  as  a  na- 
tional Church,  God  brought  her  in  the  Conven- 
tion of  1789;  out  of  her  presbyterianism  to  a 
truer  conception  of  the  episcopate  she  was 
brought  in  the  opening  years  of  the  last  cen- 
tury ;  and  out  of  her  diocesanism  to  some  vision 
of  her  world-wide  mission  she  was  brought  in 
the  Convention  of  1835,  when  she  knew  herself 
to  be  The  Missionary  Society,  and  sent  mission- 
ary bishops  into  the  lands  beyond. 

Yet  all  these  were  simply  returns  to  primi- 
tive ideals.  Imperfectly  as  the  Church  grasped 
them,  ineffectively  as  she  sometimes  used  them, 
they  were  nevertheless  the  vital  springs  of 
whatever  lasting  results  have  been  accom- 
plished. This  sense  of  what  the  Church  is  and 
may  give,  inspired  her  missionary  leaders.  The 
treasures  and  the  powers  which  lay  within  her, 
the  conviction  of  her  divine  character  and  mis- 
sion, were  the  effective  stimulus  which  kept 
them  brave  and  faithful  under  manifold  discour- 
agements. That  they  sometimes  accomplished 
little,  compared  with  the  opportunities  they 
faced  and  the  achievements  of  other  Christian 
bodies  about  them,  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
Church  at  large  did  not  yet  believe  in  herself. 

Does  she  yet  believe?  That  will  be  proved  by 
the  issue.  If  she  has  a  mission  to  become  any- 
thing more  than  a  respectable  little  sect,  she  can 


A  Last  Word  185 

fulfil  it  only  when  she  rises  to  a  sense  of  what 
she  is  and  what  she  is  called  to  do.  If  she  has, 
as  she  believes,  a  Catholic  heritage — if  she  is, 
as  she  claims  to  be,  a  national  Church — her  best 
contribution  to  the  religious  needs  of  America 
and  the  world  will  be  made  when  she  acts  on 
these  beliefs;  when,  following  the  best  tradi- 
tions and  suggestions  of  the  past  she  aspires  to 
become  in  the  future  a  more  perfect  represen- 
tative of  New  Testament  Christianity. 

To  such  a  mind,  and  to  such  a  service,  may 
God  bring  us  all  I 


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WY0M1W6 


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DAKOTA 

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7'°'!!tMAiAllKAWSAS<'-  -"]        A,\»TiAN1»--^"°". 
j  TEXAS   J  1-i...,--^  J        s     !       ^^ 


Tt|inilmmr  7<°  8  intliuifS  AUsha.  mJ 
^Murioimry  Disfn'cW  of  HonoUiiu  and  ihi 
r/iilippinc  Istiuuif 


l^tpaximcat  TV?  2  inctudts  TorHj  Rift 
MAP  SHOWING  DIOCESES  AM'   '"SlRIr'^Nn  THE   EIGHT  MISSIONARY  DEI'ARTMEN 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX    I— Bibliography 

So  manifold  are  the  sources  from  which  material  for  this 
course  might  be  gathered  that  the  author  finds  the  prep- 
aration of  a  bibliography  exceedingly  difficult.  Dealing  as 
the  course  does  with  the  missionary  problem  in  the  light  of 
Church  history,  anything  which  has  to  do  with  the  history 
of  the  Church  would  doubtless  be  of  some  value  to  students 
of  this  course.  It  is  necessary,  however,  to  limit  the  list, 
and  the  following  books  are  therefore  mentioned. 

PUBLISHED   TO   ACCOMPANY  THE   TEXT-BOOK 

Suggestions  for  Leaders  in  Teaching  "The  Conquest  of  the 
Continent,"    10   cents. 

An  Officer  of  the  Line:  a  story  of  a  typical  Western  mis- 
sionary life.  75  pps,,  paper,  25  cents.  Church  Missions 
Publishing  Company. 

An  Apostle  of  the  Western  Church:  by  Greenough  White. 
A  reprint  of  a  most  valuable  historical  work.  230  pps., 
paper,  35  cents. 

The  Conversion  of  Mormonism:  an  outline  of  Mormon  his- 
tory and  of  our  work  among  these  people.  75  pps.,  25 
cents.     Church  Missions  Publishing  Company. 

Conquerors  of  the  Continent:  a  junior  course  following 
the  lines  of  ''The  Conquest  of  the  Continent,'*  dealing 
with  conspicuous  missionary  leaders.     25  cents. 

Followers  of  the  Trail:  four  stories  of  missionary  enterprise. 
(For  young  people.)  75  pps.,  35  cents.  Church  Missions 
Publishing  Company. 

Nelly  and   Gypsy,   the  Missionary  Ponies.      (For  children.) 
10  cents.     Church  Missions  Publishing  Company. 
All   of    these   can   be   secured   by    addressing   The   Educa- 
tional   Secretary,   Board    of    Missions,   281    Fourth    Avenue, 

New  York. 

187 


188  Appendix 


BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE 

History  of  the  United  States:  John  Fiske.  Houghton-Mif- 
flin Company. 

A  standard  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church:  Coleman's, 
McConnell  's  or  Perry 's. 

Three  Hundred  Years  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America: 
George  Hodges,  D.D.  George  W.  Jacobs  &  Co.,  Phila- 
delphia. 

In  Connection  With: 

Chapter    I. — The     Territorial    Growth     of    the    United 
States:    Dr.   William  A.   Mowry.     Missionary  Educa- 
tion Movement. 
Chapter   II. — Life    of   Bishop    Chase.      Church   Missions 

Publishing  Company. 
Chapter  III. — Nashotah  House.     Church  Missions   Pub- 
lishing   Company. 
Chapter   IV. — Lights   and    Shadows   of   a   Long   Episco- 
pate: Bishop  Whipple.     The  Macmillan  Company. 

History  of  the  Diocese  of  Minnesota,  1857-1907: 
George  C.  Tanner,  D.D.  Published  by  Rev.  W.  C. 
Pope,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

The  Life   and  Labors   of  Bishop   Hare,   Apostle   to 
the  Sioux:  M.  A.  De Wolfe  Howe.     Sturgis  &  Walton 
Company. 
Chapter    V. — Reminiscences    of    a    Missionary    Bishop: 
Bishop  Tuttle.     Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York. 

My  People   of  the  Plains:    Bishop  Talbot.     Harper 
&  Brothers,  New  York. 
Chapter    VI. — Early    Days    of    My    Episcopate:    Bishop 
Kip.     (Out  of  print.) 
The  above  books  (except  the  last  named)  may  be  ordered 
through    the    Educational    Department,    although    they    will 
not  be  carried  in  stock.     Most  of  them  could  be  found  in 
any  well-equipped  public  library. 


APPENDIX    II— Chronological    Data 
THE    CHURCH    WEST    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI 

The  purpose  of  this  appendix  is  to  present  a  brief  state- 
ment of  the  historical  events  in  our  dioceses  and  districts 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  Somewhat  of  the  home  mission  field 
lies  east  of  that  great  stream,  including  several  missionary 
districts;  but  in  general  the  territory  coming  within  the  pur- 
view of  this  book  is   included  in   the  tables  which  follow. 

It  is  hoped  that  they  may  be  useful  as  an  outline  which 
students  may  fill  in  and  so  develop  for  themselves  a  more 
consecutive  missionary  history  than  could  be  given  in  the 
preceding  pages.  Many  interesting  mission  fields  have  there 
received  only  the  barest  mention;  some,  none  at  all.  The 
tables  may  encourage  research  concerning  these;  at  any 
rate  they  will  furnish  to  the  Church  a  compendium  of 
historical  information  which  nowhere  else  exists  in  this  form. 

These  tables  should  be  studied  in  connection  with  and 
by  the  aid  of  a  Church  Almanac  for  the  current  year, 
wherein  will  be  found,  under  the  heading  of  each  diocese 
or  district,  the  latest  information  concerning  statistics  and 
conditions.  To  incorporate  such  information  here  would  be 
manifestly  inexpedient,  as  it  could  not  have  permanent 
accuracy. 

The  historical  data  are  arranged  under  the  largest  civil 
unit — the  state — showing  its  subdivision  into  ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions.  The  author  would  be  glad  to  receive  sug- 
gestions concerning  further  dates  or  facts  which  should  be 
given — if  this  book  should  be  so  fortunate  as  to  reach  a 
second  edition. 

ARIZONA 
District    of   Arizona 

1848  and  1853 — Became  part  of  the  United  States  through 
the  Mexican   Cession  and  Gadsden  Purchase. 

1866 — Arizona  with  Nevada  constituted  a  missionary  juris- 
diction. 

189 


190  Appendix 

1869— Ozi  William  Whitaker,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Virginia  City,  Nov.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop 
of  Nevada,  with  jurisdiction  in  Arizona,  October  13. 

1873 — First  Church  service  in  Arizona  held  by  Bishop 
Whitaker. 

1874 — Arizona  detached  from  Nevada,  and,  with  New  Mex- 
ico, constituted  a  new  missionary  jurisdiction. 

1875 — William  Forbes  Adams,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
New  Orleans,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  January  17. 

1876 — Bishop  Adams  resigned  his  jurisdiction,  which  came 
under  the  charge  of  Bishop  F.  J.  Spalding  of  Col- 
orado. 

1880 — George  Kelly  Dunlop,  rector  of  Grace  Church,  Kirk- 
wood,  Mo.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  Novem- 
ber 21. 

1882 — ^First  church  building  in  Arizona  erected  in  Tomb- 
stone. 

1888— Death   of   Bishop  Dunlop,   March  12. 

1889 — John  Mills  Kendrick,  rector  of  the  Church  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  Columbus,  O.,  consecrated  mission- 
ary bishop,  January  18. 

1892 — New  Mexico  and  Arizona  made  separate  missionary 
jurisdictions;   Bishop  Kendrick  in   charge   of  both. 

1897 — Hospital  of  the  Good  Shepherd  founded  among  the 
Navajos  at  Ft.  Defiance. 

1907 — St.  Luke's  Home  for  Tuberculosis  Patients,  Phoenix, 
founded. 

1910 — Bishop  Kendrick  relieved  of  the  care  of  Arizona. 

1911 — Julius  W.  Atwood,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Phoenix, 
Ariz.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  Arizona. 


ARKANSAS 
Diocese  of  Arkansas 

1803 — ^Became  part  of  the  United  States  through  the  Lou- 
isiana Purchase. 

1838 — ^Leonidas  Polk,  rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Colum- 
bia, Tenn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  Ar- 
kansas, and  the  Indian  Territory. 

1839 — Work  opened  at  Helena,  March  3,  when  Bishop  Polk 
held  first  service  there. 

1840 — The  Eev.  William  N.  C.  Yeager,  the  first  missionary 
sent  by  the  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety to  Arkansas,  took  up  his  residence  at  Little 
Eock. 

1841 — Bishop  Polk  translated  to  diocese  of  Louisiana. 


Appendix  191 

1844 — George  Washington  Freeman,  rector  of  Immanuel 
Church,  Newcastle,  Del.,  consecrated  October  26 
as  missionary  bishop  of  Arkansas  and  the  Indian 
Territory. 

1858 — Death   of  Bishop  Freeman  at  Little  Eock,  April  29. 

1859 — Henry  Champlin  Lay,  rector  of  the  Church  of  the 
Nativity,  Huntsville,  Va.,  consecrated  missionary 
bishop.  May  23, 

1862 — Arkansas  erected  into  a  diocese  by  the  General  Coun- 
cil of  the  Churches  in  the  Confederate  States  in 
November,  with  Bishop  Lay  as  diocesan.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  Civil  War  Arkansas  resumed  its 
missionary  status. 

1869 — Bishop  Lay  translated  to  diocese  of  Easton. 

1870 — Henry  Niles  Pierce,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Springfield,  111.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
January  25. 

1871 — Arkansas  erected  into  a  diocese  in  primary  conven- 
tion held  in  Christ  Church,  Little  Eock.  Bishop 
Pierce  elected  diocesan. 

1898 — William  Montgomery  Brown,  rector  of  Grace  Church, 
Gallion,  O.,  consecrated  Bishop-coadjutor  of  Arkan- 
sas, June  24. 

1899 — ^By  the  death  of  Bishop  Pierce  on  September  5 
Bishop  Brown  became  diocesan. 

1911 — ^James  E.  Winchester,  rector  of  Calvary  Church, 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  consecrated  Bishop-coadjutor  of 
Arkansas,  September  29. 


CALIFORNIA 
Diocese    of    California 

1579 — First  recorded  prayer  book  service  in  United  States 
held  at  Drake's  Bay  by  Eev.  Francis  Fletcher, 
June  24. 

1848 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Mexican  Ces- 
sion. 

1849 — Parish  of  Holy  Trinity,  San  Francisco,  organized  and 
first  services  held  by  Eev.  Flavel  S.  Mines  and 
Eev.  Augustus  Fitch. 

1850 — First  Convention  of  the  Church,  San  Francisco,  Au- 
gust 6.  Six  clergymen  and  several  laymen  present. 
Constitution   and   canons  adopted. 

1853 — General  Convention  constituted  missionary  district 
of  California  William  Ingraham  Kip,  rector  of 
St.  Paul's  Church  Albany,  N.  Y.,  consecrated  mis- 
sionary bishop,  October  28. 


192  Appendix 

1856 — Diocese  of  California  erected. 

1857 — Bishop  Kip  elected  diocesan. 

1874 — Missionary  district  of  Northern  California  (now  Sac- 
ramento) set  off  by  General  Convention. 

1890 — William  Ford  Nichols,  rector  of  St.  James'  Church, 
Philadelphia,  Penn.,  consecrated  bishop-coadjutor  of 
California,  June  24. 

1893 — Death  of  Bishop  Kip,  April  6,  Bishop  Nichols  became 
diocesan. 

1895 — Diocese  of  Los  Angeles  set  off  by  General  Convention. 

1906 — Earthquake  and  fire,  which  destroyed  the  greater  part 
of  San  Francisco  and  did  great  damage  in  sur- 
rounding country.  Loss  of  Church  property  more 
than  $1,000,000.  Every  diocese  and  missionary  dis- 
trict in  the  Church  united  in  sending  more  than 
$400,000  to  the  stricken  diocese. 

1910 — Missionary  district  of  San  Joaquin  (that  part  of  the 
diocese  east  of  the  Coast  Kange)  set  off  by  the  Gen- 
eral Convention. 


Diocese  of  Sacramento 

(Formerly    District    of    Northern    California) 

1867 — Rev.  Dr.  James  Lloyd  Breck  founded,  at  Benicia, 
missionary  college  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Mary's 
School  for  Girls  (now  defunct). 

1874 — Missionary  district  of  Northern  California  set  off 
from  diocese  of  California.  John  Henry  Duchachet 
Wingfield,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  San  Francis''<o, 
consecrated  missionary  bishop,  December  2. 

1898— Death  of  Bishop  Wingfield,  July  27. 

The  General  Convention  added  certain  counties  in 
Nevada  to  Northern  California  and  changed  its 
name  to  the  missionary  district  of  Sacramento. 

1899 — William  Hall  Moreland,  rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church, 
San  Francisco,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
Sacramento,  January  25. 

1907 — The  district  relieved  of  Nevada. 

1910 — Sacramento  organized  into  a  diocese. 


Diocese  of  Los  Angeles 

1895 — Was  set  off  from  the  diocese  of  California. 

Primary  Convention  held  December  3. 
1896 — Joseph    Horsfall    Johnson,    rector    of    Christ    Church, 

Detroit,  Mich.,  consecrated  bishop,  February  24. 


Appendix  193 

District  of  San  Joaquin 

(Being  eentral  part  of  the  State,  east  of  Coast  Eange) 

1910 — Was  set  off  from  the  diocese  of  California. 

1911 — Louis  Childs  Sanford,  secretary  of  the  Eighth  Mis- 
sionary Department,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
January  25. 

COLORADO 
Diocese   of  Colorado 

1803  and  1848 — Became  part  of  the  United  States  through 
Louisiana  Purchase  and  Mexican  Cession. 

1859 — Colorado  included  in  the  Missionary  Jurisdiction  of 
the   Northwest,   under   Et.    Eev.   Joseph   C.   Talbot. 

1860 — First  Church  service  held  in  Denver  by  Eev.  J.  H. 
Kehler. 

1865 — General  Convention  constitutes  the  Missionary  Juris- 
diction of  Colorado  and  Parts  Adjacent.  George 
Maxwell  Eandall  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
the  jurisdiction,  December  28. 

1866 — Montana  and  Idaho  detached  from  Colorado  at  spe- 
cial meeting  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  and  New 
Mexico  placed  under  Bishop   Eandall. 

1868 — "College  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,"  including 
the  Denver  Theological  School  and  Wolfe  Hall  for 
Girls,  founded. 

1873 — Death  of  Bishop  Eandall  in  Denver,  September  28. 

John  Franklin  Spalding,  rector  of  St.  Paul 's  Church, 
Erie,  Penn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
the  jurisdiction,  December  31. 

1881 — St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Denver,  founded. 

1887 — Colorado  organized  into  a  diocese. 

1892 — The  General  Convention  set  off  the  western  portion 
of  the  State  as  the  Missionary  District  of  Western 
Colorado. 

1902 — Death  of  Bishop  Spalding,  March  9. 

Charles  Sanford  Olmsted,  rector  of  St.  Asaph's 
Church,  Bala,  Penn.,  consecrated  Bishop  of  Col- 
orado, May  1. 

District  of  Western  Colorado 

1892 — Western  part  of  Colorado  set  off  as  missionary  dis- 
trict. 

1893 — William  Morris  Barker,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Duluth,  Minn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  Jan- 
uary 25, 


194  Appendix 

1894 — Bishop  Barker  translated  to  Olympia.  "Western  Col- 
orado placed  in  charge  of  Bishop  Leonard  of  Nevada 
and  Utah. 

1898 — Western  Colorado  made  part  of  the  district  of  Salt 
Lake,  under  jurisdiction  of  Bishop  Leonard. 

1907 — Missionary  district  of  Western  Colorado  revived. 

Edward  Jennings  Knight,  rector  of  Christ  Church, 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
December   19. 

1908 — Death  of  Bishop  Knight,  November  15. 

1909 — Benjamin  Brewster,  dean  of  St.  Mark's  Cathedral, 
Salt  Lake,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  June  17. 

DAKOTA 
District  of  Dakota 

1803 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. 

1858 — First  Church  services  held  by  Dr.  Melancthon  Hoyt. 
Dr.   Hoyt  became   itinerant   missionary  with  head- 
quarters at  Yankton. 

1859 — Missionary  district  of  Dakota  constituted  and  placed 
under  jurisdiction  of  Bishop  J.  C.  Talbot. 

1865 — Missionary  district  of  Nebraska  and  Dakota  consti- 
tuted. 

Eobert  Harper  Clarkson,  rector  of  St.  James' 
Church,  Chicago,  HI.,  consecrated  missionary 
bishop,  November  15. 

1868 — Missionary  jurisdiction  among  Indian  tribes  consti- 
tuted and  placed  in  the  charge  of  Bishop  Clarkson. 

1870 — Bishop  Clarkson  became  bishop  of  the  diocese  of  Ne- 
braska, retaining  oversight  of  Dakota. 

1871 — Name  of  Indian  jurisdiction  changed  to  Niobrara. 

1872 — Bishop  Clarkson  resigned  Niobrara. 

1873 — William  Hobart  Hare,  secretary  of  the  Domestic  and 
Foreign  Missionary  Society,  consecrated  bishop  of 
Niobrara,  January  9.  Indian  schools  for  boys  and 
girls  begun. 

1883 — Dakota  divided  into  North  and  South  Dakota.  Each 
was  constituted  a  missionary  district — that  of  South 
Dakota  including  the  Indian  jurisdiction  of  Nio- 
brara, with  Bishop  Hare  in  charge. 

District  of  North  Dakota 

1883 — Missionary  district  of  North  Dakota  constituted. 

William  David  Walker,  assistant  minister  of  Cal- 
vary Church,  New  York,  consecrated  missionary 
bishop  of  North  Dakota,  December  20. 


Appendix  195 

1897 — Bishop  Walker  translated  to  Western  New  York. 
Bishop  Morrison  of  Duluth  placed  in  charge. 

1899 — Samuel  Cook  Edsall,  rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 
Chicago,  111.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  Jan- 
uary 25. 

1901 — Bishop  Edsall  translated  to  Minnesota. 

Cameron  Mann,  rector  of  Grace  Church,  Kansas 
City,  Mo.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  De- 
cember 4. 

1905— Church  Hall,  Valley  City,  founded. 

District  of  South  Dakota 

1883 — Missionary  district  of  South  Dakota  constituted,  with 

Bishop  Hare  of  Niobrara  in  charge. 
1905 — Frederick    Foote     Johnson,     diocesan    missionary     of 

Western  Massachusetts,  consecrated  assistant  bishop, 

November   2. 
1909— Death  of  Bishop  Hare,  October  23. 
J  910 — Bishop  Johnson  elected  Bishop  of  South  Dakota. 
1911 — Bishop  Johnson  elected  bishop-coadjutor  of  Missouri. 


IDAHO 
District   of   Idaho 

1846 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  the  Oregon 
Settlement. 

1864 — St.  Michael's  Church  built  in  Boise  and  services  held 
there  by  Kev.  St.  Michael  Fackler. 

1865 — Idaho  included  in  missionary  district  of  Oregon  under 
Bishop  Thomas  F.  Scott. 

1866 — General  Convention  created  missionary  jurisdiction  of 
Montana,  Idaho  and  Utah. 

1867 — Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle,  rector  of  Zion  Church,  Morris, 
N.  Y.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  May  1. 

1886 — Idaho  and  Wyoming  constituted  a  missionary  jurisdic- 
tion. 

1887 — Ethelbert  Talbot,  rector  of  St.  James'  School,  Macon, 
Mo.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop.  May  27, 

1898 — Bishop  Talbot  translated  to  diocese  of  Central  Penn- 
sylvania (now  Bethlehem). 

General  Convention  constituted  missionary  district 
of  Boise  out  of  parts  of  Idaho,  Wyoming  and 
Utah. 

1899 — James  Bowen  Funsten,  rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
Portsmouth,  Va.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
July  13. 

1902 — St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Boise,  founded. 


196  Appendix 

1907 — The  General  Convention  constituted  the  State  of  Idaho 
as  the  missionary  district  of  Idaho,  with  Bishop 
Funsten  in   charge. 

IOWA 

Diocese  of  Iowa 

1803 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  the  Louisiana 

Purchase. 
1836  to  1839 — Eev.  R.  F.  Cadle  of  Wisconsin  and  Chaplain 

E.  G.  Gear,  U.  S.  A.,  held  services  at  various  points. 
1840 — Rev.    John    Batchelder,    missionary    of    the    General 

Board,  settled  at  Davenport. 
1853 — Organized  as  a  diocese  in  primary  convention  held  at 

Trinity  Church,  Muscatine,  August  17,  under  Bishop 

Kemper. 
1854 — Henry  Washington  Lee,  rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church, 

Rochester,  N.  Y,,  consecrated  bishop,  October  18. 
1859 — Griswold  College  founded  (now  defunct). 
1874 — Death  of  Bishop  Lee,  September  26. 
1876 — William  Stevens  Perry,  President  of  Hobart  College, 

consecrated  bishop,  September  10. 
1883 — St.  Katharine's  School  for  Girls  founded. 
1885 — St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Davenport,  founded. 
1898— Death  of  Bishop  Perry,  May  13. 

1899 — Theodore  Nevin  Morrison,  rector  Church  of  the  Epi- 
phany, Chicago,  111.,  consecrated  bishop,  February  22. 

KANSAS 
Diocese   of   Kansas 

1803 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. 

1854 — Church  services  established  at  Leavenworth  by  Rev. 
Dr.  John  McNamara. 

1856 — Primary  convention  held  at  Wyandotte   (now  Kansas 
City),  August  11-12,  under  Bishop  Kemper. 
Rev.   Hiram   Stone   organized   a  parish   at   Leaven- 
worth. 

1859 — Diocese  of  Kansas  extended  to  crest  of  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  admitted  into  union  with  General  Con- 
vention with  200  communicants. 

1860 — Bishop  Lee  of  Iowa  placed  in  charge. 

1864 — Thomas  Hubbard  Vail,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Mus- 
catine, la.,  consecrated  bishop,  December  15. 

1865 — College  of  the  Sisters  of  Bethany  founded. 

1872 — Theological  School  of  Kansas  founded. 

1887 — Elisha  Smith  Thomas,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  consecrated  assistant  bishop,  May  4. 


Appendix  197 

1888 — St.  John's  Military  School,  Salina,  founded. 

1889 — Death    of   Bishop    Vail,    October    6.      Bishop    Thomas 

became  diocesan. 
1895 — Death  of  Bishop  Thomas,  March  9, 

Frank  Eosebrook  Millspaugh,  dean  of  Grace  Cathe- 
dral, Topeka,  Kans.,  consecrated  bishop,  Septem- 
ber  19. 
1901 — The  western  half  of  the  diocese  set  off  by  the  General 
Convention  as  the  missionary  district  of  Salina. 

District    of    Salina 

1901 — Western  part  of  Kansas  set  off  by  General  Convention 

as  missionary  district  of  Salina. 
1902 — Sheldon   Munson   Griswold,   rector    of   Christ    Church, 

Hudson,  N.  Y.,  consecrated  bishop,  January  8. 

LOUISIANA 
Diocese  of  Louisiana 

1803 — Became   a  part   of   United  States  through   Louisiana 

Purchase. 
1805— The   Bishop    of   New   York   sent   the   Eev.    Philander 

Chase    to    New    Orleans,    where    he    organized    the 

parish  of  Christ  Church. 
1832 — Visitation  by  Bishop  Brownell. 
1838 — Diocese  of  Louisiana  organized. 

1839 — Diocese  placed  in  charge  of  Bishop  Polk  of  Arkansas. 
1842 — Bishop  Polk  elected  diocesan. 
1864— Death  of  Bishop  Polk,  June  14. 
1866 — Joseph  Pere  Bell  Wilmer,  rector  of  St.  Mark's  Church, 

Philadelphia,  Penn.   (prior  to  the  Civil  War),  con- 
secrated bishop,  November  7. 
1878 — Death  of  Bishop  Wilmer,  December  2. 
1880 — John  Nicholas  Galleher,  rector  of  Zion  Church,  New 

York,  consecrated  bishop,  February  5. 
1891 — Davis  Sessums,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  New  Orleans, 

La.,  consecrated  assistant  bishop,  June  24. 

Death  of  Bishop  Galleher,  December  7;  Bishop  Ses- 
sums became  diocesan. 


MINNESOTA 
Diocese   of   Minnesota 

1783  and  1803 — Became  a  part  of  United  States  through 
Paris  Treaty  and  Louisiana  Purchase. 

1839— First  service  held  by  Eev.  Ezekiel  G.  Gear,  U.  S.  A., 
chaplain  at  Fort   Snelling. 


198  Appendix 

1850 — Associate  mission  established  at  St.  Paul  by  Revs. 
James  Lloyd  Breck,  Timothy  Wilcoxson  and  John 
A.  Merrick. 

1852 — Mission  for  Indians  established  at  Gull  Lake  by  Dr. 
Breck. 

1857 — Diocese  organized  at  primary  convention  in  Christ 
Church,  St.  Paul^  and  placed  in  charge  of  Bishop 
Kemper. 

1858 — Opening  of  *' Bishop  Seabury  Mission,''  now  including 
Seabury  Divinity  School,  Shattuck  School  and  St. 
Mary's  Hall,  Faribault. 

1859 — Diocese  admitted  into  union  with  the  General  Con- 
vention. 

Henry  Benjamin  Whipple,  rector  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Communion,  Chicago,  HI.,  consecrated 
bishop,  October  13. 

1886 — Mahlon  Norris  Gilbert,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  St. 
Paul,  Minn.,  consecrated  bishop-coadjutor,  Octo- 
ber 17. 

1895 — Northern  part  of  the  State  set  off  as  missionary  dis- 
trict of  Duluth. 

1900 — Death  of  Bishop-coadjutor  Gilbert^,  March  2, 

1901 — Bishop  Whipple   died  in  Faribault,  September  16. 

Samuel  Cook  Edsall,  missionary  bishop  of  North  Da- 
kota, translated  to  the  diocese  of  Minnesota,  No- 
vember 5. 

Diocese  of  Duluth 

1895 — Northern   part    of    the    diocese   of   Minnesota   set    off 

as  missionary  district  of  Duluth! 

St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Duluth,  founded. 
1897 — James    Dow    Morrison,    archdeacon    of    Ogdensburgh, 

N.  Y.,  consecrated  bishop,  February  2. 
1907 — Duluth  erected  into  a  diocese. 


MISSOURI 
Diocese   of   Missouri 

1803 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. 

1819 — Christ  Church,  St.  Louis,  organized  by  Rev.  John 
Ward  of  Kentucky,  but  Rev.  Thomas  Horel  was  the 
first  settled  clergyman. 

1835 — Jackson  Kemper,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Nor- 
walk,  Conn.,  consecrated  bishop  for  Missouri  and 
Indiana,  September  25. 

1837 — Kemper  College  founded  (now  defunct). 


Appendix  199 

1840 — Diocese    organized    in    primary    convention    held    in 

Christ  Church,  St.  Louis. 
1841 — Missouri    admitted   to   Union   with   the   General   Con- 
vention under  a  special  canon. 
1844 — Cicero  Stephens  Hawks,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  St. 

Louis,  consecrated  bishop,  October  20. 
1868— Death  of  Bishop  Hawks,  April  19. 

Charles   Franklin   Robertson,   rector    of    St.    James  ^ 
Church,  Batavia,  N.  Y.,  consecrated  bishop,  Octo- 
ber 25. 
1886 — Death  of  Bishop  Robertson,  May  1. 

Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle,  missionary  bishop  of  Utah 
and  Idaho,  translated  to  Missouri. 
1889 — The  western  part  of  the  state  erected  as  the  diocese 

of  West  Missouri   (now  Kansas  City). 
1911 — Frederick  Foote  Johnson,  missionary  bishop  of  South 

Dakota,  elected  bishop-coadjutor. 

Diocese  of   Kansas   City 

(Formerly  West  Missouri) 

1889 — The  western  part   of  the  State   and   diocese  of  Mis- 
souri erected  into  the  diocese  of  West  Missouri. 

1890 — Primary    convention    held   in    Grace    Church,   Kansas 
City. 

Edward   Robert    Atwill,    rector   of   Trinity   Church, 
Toledo,  O.,  consecrated  bishop,  October  14. 

1904 — Consent   given  by  General  Convention   to   change    of 
name  from  West  Missouri  to  Kansas  City. 

1911 — Death  of  Bishop  Atwill,  January  24. 

Bishop    Partridge    of   Kyoto,    Japan,   translated    to 
Kansas  City;   installed,  June  28. 


MONTANA 

Diocese   of  Montana 

1803   and   1846 — Became    a  part    of  United   States   through 

Louisiana  Purchase  and  Oregon  Settlement. 
1860 — Became  a  part  of  the  missionary  jurisdiction  of  the 

Northwest,  under  Bishop  Joseph  C.  Talbot. 
1865 — Bishop  Talbot  translated  to  Indiana. 

Missionary  district  of  the  Northwest  rearranged  by 
General  Convention,  constituting  Colorado,  Mon- 
tana, Idaho  and  Wyoming  as  a  missionary  juris- 
diction. 


200  Appendix 

1866 — Special  meeting  of  the  House  of  Bishops  constituted 
Montana,  Idaho  and  Utah  as  a  missionary  juris- 
diction. 

1867 — Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle,  rector  of  Zion  Church,  Morris, 
N.  Y.,  consecrated  bishop,  May  1. 
First    Church    service    held,    in    Virginia    City,    by 
Bishop  Tuttle  and  Eev.  E.  N.  Goddard,  June  21. 

1880 — Missionary  jurisdiction  of  Montana  set  off  from  Idaho 
and  Utah,  Bishop  Tuttle  remaining  in  charge  of  the 
two  latter  fields. 

Leigh  Eichmond  Brewer,  rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
Watertown,  N.  Y.,  consecrated  bishop  of  Mon- 
tana, December  8. 

1884 — St.  Peter's  Hospital,  Helena,  founded. 

1904 — Montana  erected  into  a  diocese. 


NEBRASKA 
Diocese  of  Nebraska 

1803 — Became  a  part  of  United  States  through  Louisiana 
Purchase. 

1835 — Part  of  the  missionary  jurisdiction  of  Bishop  Kemper. 

1856 — The  Eev.  Gr.  W.  Watson  established  Church  services 
at  Omaha.  The  Eevs.  J.  DePuy  and  William  Vaux 
officiated  at  Forts  Kearney  and  Laramie. 

1860 — Came  under  the  missionary  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop 
of  the  Northwest,  Et.  Eev.  J.  C.  Talbot. 

1865 — The    district    of    Nebraska    and   Parts   Adjacent    was 
constituted. 
Eobert  Harper  Clarkson,  rector  of  St.  James'  Church, 
Chicago,    111.,    consecrated    missionary    bishop,    No- 
vember 15. 

1868 — Diocese  of  Nebraska  organized  in  primary  convention 
in  Trinity  Cathedral,  Omaha.  Diocese  admitted  into 
union  with  the  General  Convention. 

1870 — Council  of  diocese  elected,  for  the  second  time.  Bishop 
Clarkson,  who  accepted. 

1884 — Death  of  Bishop  Clarkson,  March  10. 

1885 — George  Worthington,  rector  of  St.  John's  Church,  De- 
troit, consecrated  bishop,  February  24. 

1889 — The  western  part  of  the  diocese  constituted  the  mis- 
sionary district  of  the  Platte  (now  Kearney). 

1899 — Arthur  L.  Williams,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Chicago, 
consecrated  bishop-coadjutor,  October  18. 

1908 — Death  of  Bishop  Worthington,  January  7.  Bishop 
Williams  became  diocesan. 


Appendix  201 


District   of   Kearney 

1889 — Western  part  of  Nebraska  constituted  missionary  dis- 
trict of  the  Platte. 

1890 — Anson  Rogers  Graves,  rector  of  Gethsemane  Church, 
Minneapolis,  Minn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
January  1. 

1898 — Part  of  the  State  of  Wyoming  added  to  the  Platte 
and  name  of  district  changed  to  Laramie. 

1907 — District  relieved  of  any  portion  of  Wyoming  and 
name  changed  to  missionary  district  of  Kearney. 

1910 — Bishop   Graves  resigned. 

George  Allen  Beecher,  dean  of  Trinity  Cathedral,  Oma- 
ha, Neb.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  Novem- 
ber 30. 

NEVADA 
District  of  Nevada 

1848 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Mexican  Ces- 
sion. 

1859 — Territory  of  Nevada  made  part  of  missionary  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Northwest. 

1860 — Joseph  Cruikshank  Talbot,  rector  of  Christ  Church, 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
the  Northwest,  February  15. 

1861 — First  service  of  the  Church  held  in  Virginia  City  by 
Bev.  H.  G.  O.  Sweathman. 

1863 — St.  Paul's  Church,  Virginia  City,  consecrated. 

1865 — Bishop  J.  C.  Talbot  translated  to  Indiana. 

Missionary  jurisdiction  of  Nevada  and  Parts  Adjacent 
constituted. 

1866 — Nevada  and  Arizona  set  off  into  a  new  missionary 
jurisdiction. 

1868— Ozi  William  Whitaker,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Virginia  City,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
Nevada  with  jurisdiction  in  Arizona. 

1873 — Trinity  Church,  Eeno,  organized. 

1874 — Nevada  relieved  of  Arizona. 

1886 — Missionary  jurisdiction  of  Nevada   and  Utah  consti- 
tuted. 
Bishop  Whitaker  translated   to  Pennsylvania. 

1888 — Abiel  Leonard,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Atchison, 
Kans.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  Nevada  and 
Utah,  January  25. 

1898 — Nevada  divided,  the  western  half  going  to  Sacramento 
and  the  eastern  half  to  Salt  Lake.  (See  Utah  and 
Sacramento.) 


202  Appendix 

2903 — ^Death  of  Bishop  Leonard,  December  3. 

1907 — Nevada  constituted  a  separate  missionary  district. 

1908 — Henry  Douglas  Eobinson,  warden   of  Eacine   College, 

Eacine,  Wis.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  March 

25. 

NEW    MEXICO 

District  of  New  Mexico 

(With   Texas   west   of   the   Pecos  Eiver,    after   1895) 

1845  and  1848 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Texan 
Annexation  and  Mexican  Cession. 

1860-1865 — Joseph  C.  Talbot,  Bishop  of  the  Northwest,  had 
jurisdiction  over  New  Mexico.  He  visited  Santa  Fe 
and  established  services. 

1866 — ^John  Woart,  Chaplain  U.  S.  A.,  held  services  at  Fort 
Union  and  other  places. 

1865-1873 — Under  the  jurisdiction  of  Bishop  Eandall  of  Col- 
orado. 

1874 — Missionary  jurisdiction  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 
constituted. 

1875 — William  Forbes  Adams,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
New  Orleans,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  January  17. 

1876 — ^Bishop  Adams  resigned.  New  Mexico  came  under  the 
charge  of  Bishop  J.  F.  Spalding  of  Colorado. 

1880 — George  Kelly  Dunlop,  rector  of  Grace  Church,  Kirk- 
wood,  Mo.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  Novem- 
ber 21. 

1888 — Death  of  Bishop  Dunlop,  March  12. 

1889 — John  Mills  Kendrick,  rector  of  the  Church  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  Columbus,  O.,  consecrated  mission- 
ary bishop,  January  18. 

1892 — New  Mexico  and  Arizona  made  separate  missionary 
jurisdictions,  both  under  charge  of  Bishop  Ken- 
drick. 

1895 — Texas  west  of  the  Pecos  Eiver  added  to  New  Mexico. 

1910 — Bishop  Kendrick  relieved  of  the  district  of  Arizona. 

OKLAHOMA 
District  of  Oklahoma 

1803 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. 

1844-1886 — Bishops  Freeman,  Lay  and  Pierce  preached  among 
the  Indians.     (See  Arkansas.) 


Appendix  203 

1884 — Two  Indian  boys  who  had  been  educated  in  New  York 
ordained  deacons  and  returned  with  Rev.  J.  B. 
Wicks    as    missionaries    to    Cheyennes    and    Kiowas. 

1889 — Oklahoma  opened  to  settlement,  April  22.  Two  white 
clergy  arrived;  a  parish  was  organized  at  Guthrie 
and  missions  begun  at  three  other  places. 

1892 — Missionary  district  of  Oklahoma  and  Indian  Territory 
constituted.   . 

1893 — Francis  Key  Brooke,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Atchi- 
son, Kans.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  Okla- 
homa and  Indian  Territory,  January  6. 

1895 — All  Saints'  Hospital,  McAlester,  founded  (now  in 
Eastern  Oklahoma). 

1907 — Oklahoma  and  Indian  Territory  organized  into  one 
State.     Missionary  district  of  Oklahoma  constituted. 

1910 — Eastern  half  of  State  set  off  as  missionary  district 
of  Eastern  Oklahoma. 

District  of  Eastern  Oklahoma 

1910 — Eastern  half  of  Oklahoma  set  off  as  missionary  dis- 
trict of  Eastern  Oklahoma. 

1911 — Theodore  Payne  Thurston,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Minneapolis,  Minn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
January  25. 

OREGON 
Diocese   of    Oregon 

1846 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Oregon  Set- 
tlement. 

1848 — First  Church  service  held  in  Oregon  City  by  Kev.  St. 
Michael  Fackler. 

1851 — Trinity  Church,  Portland,  organized  by  Rev.  William 
Richmond,  missionary  of  the  General  Board. 

1854 — Thomas  Fielding  Scott,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Co- 
lumbus, Ga.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  for  Ore- 
gon and  Washington  Territories,  January  8. 

1865 — St.  Helen's  Hall  (Church  school  for  girls)  established. 

1867— Death  of  Bishop  Scott,  July  14. 

1868 — Benjamin  Wistar  Morris,  rector  of  St.  David 's  Church, 
Manayunk,  Penn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
Oregon  and  Washington,  December  3. 

1880 — Oregon  and  Washington  divided.  Bishop  Morris  re- 
maining in  charge  of  Oregon. 

1889 — Oregon  organized  into  a  diocese. 

1890 — Hospital  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  Portland,  incor- 
porated. 


204  Appendix 

1906 — Death  of  Bishop  Morris,  April  7. 

Charles    Scadding,    rector    of    Emmanuel    Church,    La 
Grange,  111.,  consecrated  bishop,   September  29. 
1907 — That  part  of  the   State  of   Oregon   lying  east  of  the 
Cascade   Mountains    set   off   as   the   missionary   dis- 
trict of  Eastern  Oregon. 
Oregon  Associate  Mission  established. 

District  of  Eastern  Oregon 

1907 — That  part  of  the  State  of  Oregon  lying  east  of  the 
Cascade  Mountains  set  off  as  the  missionary  dis- 
trict of  Eastern  Oregon. 
Robert  Lewis  Paddock,  rector  of  Holy  Apostles/ 
Church,  New  York,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
December  18. 

TEXAS 
Diocese   of   Texas 

1845 — Became  a  part  of  the  United  States  through  Texan 
Annexation. 
Prior  to  this  date  the  Rev.  Caleb  S.  Ives,  missionary 
sent  from  the  Board  of  Missions  to  the  Republic 
of  Texas,  held  services  at  Matagorda;  Bishop  Polk 
made  visitations  in  1839  and  1840,-  in  1844  Bishop 
Freeman  was  given  episcopal  supervision  over  the 
missions  of  the  Church  in  the  Republic   of  Texas. 

1849 — Diocese  of  Texas  organized  at  primary  convention 
held  in  Matagorda,  August  1. 

1850 — Diocese  of  Texas  admitted  into  union  with  the  Gen- 
eral Convention. 

1859 — Alexander  Gregg,  rector  of  St.  David's  Church,  Che- 
raw,  S.  C,  consecrated  bishop,  October  13. 

1874 — ^Missionary  jurisdictions  of  Northern  Texas  (now  Dal- 
las) and  West  Texas  set  off  from  diocese  of  Texas. 

1892 — George  Herbert  Kinsolving,  rector  of  the  Church  of 
the  Epiphany,  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  consecrated  as- 
sistant bishop,  October  12. 

1893 — ^Death  of  Bishop  Gregg,  July  11;  Bishop  Kinsolving 
became  diocesan. 

Diocese   of   Dallas 

1874 — Northern  Texas  set  off  as  a  missionary  district. 

Alexander    Charles    Garrett,    dean    of    Trinity    Cathe- 
dral, Omaha,  Neb.,  consecrated  bishop,  December  20. 
1895 — Northern    Texas    organized    as    a    diocese    under    the 
name  of  Dallas. 


Appendix  205 


Diocese  of  West  Texas 

1874 — Southwestern  portion  of  the  State  set  off  as  the  mis- 
sionary district  of  West  Texas. 
Eobert  W.  B.   Elliott,  rector  of  St.  Philip's   Church, 
Atlanta,    Ga.,    consecrated    missionary    bishop,    No- 
vember 15. 

1878— St.  Mary's  School  for  Girls  founded. 

1887— Death  of  Bishop  Elliott. 

1888 — James  Steptoe  Johnston,  rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
Mobile,  Ala.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  Jan- 
uary 6. 

1894 — West  Texas  Military  Academy  for  Boys  founded, 

1895 — That  part  of  the  district  west  of  the  Pecos  Kiver 
attached  to  New  Mexico. 

1903— St.  Philip's  Industrial  School  for  Colored  Girls 
founded. 

1904 — West  Texas  organized  as  a  diocese. 

District  of  North  Texas 

1910 — ^Part  of  the   diocese   of  Dallas,   with  eleven   counties 
from  West  Texas,  set  apart  to  form  the  missionary 
district  of  North  Texas. 
Edward  Arthur  Temple,  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Waco,  Tex.,  consecrated  bishop,  December  15. 

UTAH 
District    of    Utah 

1848 — ^Became  a  part  of  the  United  States  through  Mexican 
Cession. 

1859 — Included  in  missionary  district  of  the  Northwest  under 
Bishop  J.  C.  Talbot. 

1865 — Included  in  the  missionary  jurisdiction  of  Colorado 
and  Parts  Adjacent,  under  Bishop   Randall. 

1866 — Missionary  jurisdiction  of  Montana,  Idaho  and  Utah 
constituted. 

1867 — Daniel  Sylvester  Tuttle,  rector  of  Zion  Church,  Mor- 
ris, N.  Y.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  May  1. 

1872— St.  Mark's  Hospital,  Salt  Lake  City,  founded.  The 
first  hospital  in  the  intermountain  country. 

1880 — Montana  detached,  Bishop  Tuttle  remaining  with 
Utah  and  Idaho. 

1881 — Rowland  Hall,  Salt  Lake  City,  founded. 

1886 — Bishop  Tuttle  translated  to  the  diocese  of  Missouri. 
Idaho  detached  from  Utah;  Nevada  and  Utah  consti- 
tuted a  missionary  jurisdiction. 


206  Appendix 

1888 — Abiel  Leonard,  rector  of  Trinity  Churcli,  Atchison, 
Kans.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of  Nevada  and 
Utah,  January  25. 

1898 — The  missionary  district  of  Salt  Lake  constituted  out 
of  the  State  of  Utah,  parts  of  Nevada  and  Wy- 
oming and  the  missionary  district  of  Western  Col- 
orado, Bishop   Leonard  remaining  in  charge. 

1903 — Death  of  Bishop  Leonard,  December  3. 

1904 — Franklin  Spencer  Spalding,  rector  of  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Erie,  Penn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
December  14. 

1907 — Missionary  districts  reconstituted,  the  State  of  Utah 
becoming  the  missionary  district  of  Utah  under 
Bishop  Spalding. 

WASHINGTON 
District  of  Washington 

1846 — Became  part  of  United  States  through  Oregon  Settle- 
ment. 

1854 — Thomas  Fielding  Scott,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Co- 
lumbus, Ga.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  for  Ore- 
gon and  Washington  Territories,  January  8. 

1867— Death  of  Bishop  Scott,  July  14. 

1868 — Benjamin  Wistar  Morris,  rector  of  St.  David's  Church, 
Manayunk,  Penn.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop, 
December  3. 

1880 — Washington  set  off  from  Oregon. 

John  Adams  Paddock,  rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
Washington,  December   15. 

1892 — Wasliington  divided  into  missionary  districts  of  Olym- 
pia  and  Spokane,  Bishop  Paddock  remaining  in 
charge  of  Olympia. 

Diocese  of   Olympia 

1892 — Western  half  of  Washington  set  off  as  missionary 
district  of  Olympia  under  Bishop  Paddock. 

1894 — Death   of  Bishop  Paddock,   March   4. 

Bishop  W.  M.  Barker  of  Western  Colorado  trans- 
lated to  Olympia. 

1901 — Death  of  Bishop  Barker. 

1902 — Frederic  William  Keator,  rector  of  St.  John^s  Church, 
Dubuque,  la.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop  of 
Olympia. 

1910 — Diocese  of  Olympia  organized. 


Appendix  207 


District    of   Spokane 

1871 — First  services  held  by  Rev.  Lemuel  H.  "Wells  at  Walla 
Walla. 

1892 — Eastern  lialf  of  Washington  set  off  as  missionary  dis- 
trict of  Spokane. 
Lemuel  H.   Wells,  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Tacoma, 
Wash.,  consecrated  missionary  bishop,  December  16. 

WYOMING 
District  of  Wyoming 

1803  and  1846 — Became  a  part  of  the  United  States  through 
Louisiana  Purchase  and  Oregon  Settlement. 

1859 — Included  in  the  missionary  jurisdiction  of  the  North- 
west under  Bishop  J.  C.  Talbot. 

1865 — Included  in  the  missionary  jurisdiction  of  Colorado 
and  Parts  Adjacent,  under  Bishop  Randall,  who  held 
the  first  services  of  the  Church  in  Wyoming. 

1868 — Two  parishes  organized,  one  of  them  at  Cheyenne 
under  Rev.  J.  W.  Cook. 

1883 — Wyoming  constituted  a  separate  missionary  jurisdic- 
tion under  Bishop  J.  F.  Spalding  of  Colorado. 

1886 — Wyoming  and  Idaho  constituted  a  missionary  district. 

1887 — Ethelbert  Talbot  consecrated  missionary  bishop.  May 
27. 

1898 — Bishop  Talbot  translated  to  Central  Pennsylvania 
(now  Bethlehem).  From  1898  to  1907  the  district 
was  divided  between  Laramie,  Boise  and  Salt  Lake. 

1907 — Wyoming  was  reconstituted  a  missionary  district. 

1909 — Nathaniel  Seymour  Thomas,  rector  of  Holy  Apostles' 
Church,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  consecrated  missionary 
bishop.  May  6. 


INDEX 

Adams,  John,  U.  S.  Peace  Commissioner,  14-15 

Alaska 

Its  purchase,  167 ;  geographical  features,  167-168 ;  missions, 
Russian,  English  and  Presbyterian,  168-169 ;  Rev,  Octavius 
Parker  at  St.  Michael's  and  Anvik,  our  first  missionary,  169- 
170 ;  Rev.  J.  W.  Chapman  at  Anvik,  170-172  ;  Dr.  J.  B. 
Driggs  at  Point  Hope,  173  ;  E.  J.  Knapp,  173  ;  Rev.  A.  R. 
Hoare,  173 ;  Rev.  J.  L.  Prevost  at  Tanana,  174 ;  Bishop 
Rowe,  175-179  ;  Miss  A.  C.  Farthing  at  Nenana.  179-180 ; 
Ven.  Hudson  Stuck,  181 ;  Rev.  C.  E.  Betticher,   Jr.,  181 

Andrus,  Rev.  J.   R.,  50 

Apostolic  ministry  first  secured  in  America,  41 

Arkansas 

Bishop  Polk,  87,  116 

Articles  of  peace,  14-15 

Benicia,   California 

St.  Augustine's  College  and  St.  Mary's  Hall,  150 
Betticher,  Rev.   C.   E.,   Jr.,   in  Alaska,   181 

Breck,   Rev.   J.   L.,   at  Nashotah,   88  ;   in  Minnesota,   89-90 ;   in  Cali- 
fornia,  90-91,   150-151 ;  portrait,  opp.  86 

California 

First  Christian  service,  143 ;  ancient  missions,  144 ;  independ- 
ence declared,  144 ;  gold  discovered,  145 ;  first  church,  built 
by  Rev.  F.  S.  Mines,  146  ;  Bishop  Kip,  147-149 ;  divided. 
149,  153  ;  Bishop  Wingfield,  150  ;  Rev.  C.  C.  Pierce's  work  in 
Northern  California,    151-153 

Chapman,   Rev.  J.  W.,   at  Anvik,  170-172  ;  portrait,  opp.  166 

Chase,   Right  Rev.   Philander,  forerunner  of  missionary  bishops,  53- 
54,  86  ;   portrait,  opp.   54 

Church,   General   Convention,   1789,   37-38 ;   1811,   38-39 ;   growth   in 
1835,  48 

Clarkson,  Right  Rev.  R.  H,,  in  Nebraska,  119 

Colorado 

Bishop  Randall,  119 

Cowboys,   125-126 

Doane,   Right  Rev.  G.  W.,  sermon  at  Bishop  Kemper's  consecration, 

60-61 ;   portrait,   opp.   58 
Driggs,  J.  B.,  M.D.,  at  Point  Hope,  173 

Eastern  Diocese 

Bishop  Griswold,  46-47 
Enmegahbowh,  Rev.  J.  J.,  first  Indian  priest,  88 

Fackler,  Rev.  St.  Michael,  in  Oregon  and  Idaho,  120,  154  ;   portrait, 

opp.  114 
Farthing,  Miss  A.   C,   at  Nenana,   179-180 
France,  acquires  Louisiana  tract,   17  ;  cedes  same   to  U.   S.,  19 


209 


210  Index 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  U.  S.  Peace  Commissioner,  14-15 
Freeman,  Right  Rev.  G.  W.,  Arkansas  and  ttie  Southwest,  117 

Gear,  Rev.  E-  G.,  in  Minnesota,  87-88  ;  portrait,  opp.  86 

General    Conventions,    in    Philadelphia,    1789,    37 ;    in    New   Haven, 

1811,  38-39  ;  in  Philadelphia,   1835,  a  missionary  awakening, 

4S-52 
Gilbert,  Right  Rev.  M.   N.,  in  Minnesota,   103 
Gilfillan,  Rev.  J.  A.,  in  Minnesota,  among  Indians,  102 
Gold  discovered,   145 
Good  Samaritan  hospital,  Portland,  155 
Green  Bay,  Wisconsin 

Oneida  Indian  mission,   64 
Griswold,   Right  Rev.   A.  V.,   bishop   of  the  Eastern  Diocese,  46-47 ; 

portrait,  opp.  46 

Hare,  Right  Rev.  W.  H.,  bishop  of  Niobrara  and  of  South   Dakota, 

104-109  ;   portrait,   opp.   102 
Hawks,    Rev.   F.    L.,    declines  election   as   bishop   of   the    Southwest, 

59-60 
Hinman,  Rev.  S.  D.,  in  Minnesota,  among  Indians,  102 
Hoare,  Rev.  A.  R.,  at  Point  Hope,  173 
Hobart,    Right    Rev.   J.    H.,    bishop   of   New   York,    42-46 ;    portrait, 

opp.  42 
Hunt,  Rev.  Robert,  holds  first  Episcopal  service  at  Jamestown,  34-35 
Hyland,  Rev.  P.  E.,  in  Washington,  156 

Idaho 

Bishop  Tuttle,  119-124 
Illinois 

Bishop  Chase,  54 
Indians,  Nez  Perces  ask  for  Bible,  26-27  ;  Oneida  Indian  mission  at 
Green  Bay,  Wisconsin,  64,  100 ;  first  Indian  priest,  Enme- 
gahbowh,  88,  101  ;  the  problem,  99-100 ;  work  in  Minnesota 
under  Breck,  90 ;  under  Bishop  Whipple,  100-103 ;  under 
Bishop  Hare,  104-109  ;   loyalty  of  Christian  Indians,  101-102 

Jamestown,  first  altar  in  America,  34-35 
Jay,   John,   U.   S.  Peace  Commissioner,  14-15 

Johnson,  Rev.  S.  R.,  accompanies  Bishop  Kemper  across  Indiana  and 
Illinois   to  St.    Louis,   63 

Kearney,  Missionary  District  of,  126 

Kemper,  Right  Rev.  Jackson,  bishop  of  Indiana  and  Missouri,  and  of 
the  Northwest,  59-60,  62-76,  86-87  ;  Mr.  Atwater's  descrip- 
tion, 71-73  ;  portrait,  opp.  62 

Kip,  Right  Rev.  W.  I.,  in  California,  147-149  ;  portrait,  opp.  158 

Knapp,  E.  J.,  at  Point  Hope,  173 

Laurens,  Henry,  U.  S.  Peace  Commissioner,  14-15 
Louisiana,  purchase,  16-21  ;  Bishop  Polk,  87,  116 
Louisiana  Territory,  Church  first  established  in  New  Orleans,  86 

Mcllvaine,    Right    Rev.    C.    P.,    Missionary    Convention    sermon,    51  ; 

portrait,  opp.  p.   58 
Marshall,   Chief  Justice,  expected  death  of  the  Church,  40-41 
Merrick,  Rev.  J.  A.,   in  Minnesota,  89 
Mexico,  independence,  21 ;  war,  22-23 
Michigan 

Bishop   Chase,    54,    64 
Milnor,  Rev.  James,  suggestion  of  the  Church's  being  the  missionary 

society,  50 


Index  211 


Miners,  127-128 

Mines,  Rev.  F.  S.,  in  San  Francisco,  146 

Minnesota 

Rev.  E.  G.  Gear,  87-88  7  Rev.  J.  L.  Breck,  89-91 ;  Rev.  Timothy 

Wilcoxson,    89  ;    Rev.    J.    A.    Merricls,    89  ;    Bisliop    Whipple, 

91-93,    100-103  ;    foreign   immigrant   problems,    93-99 ;   Indian 

problem   and   work,    99-104 
Missionary    episcopate,    created,    49,    55  ;    first    bishop.    Right    Rev. 

Jackson  Kemper  of  the  Northwest,  59 
Missionary  society,  organized  in  1821,  50 
Montana 

Bishop   Tuttle,    119-122 ;    Bishop   Brewer,    122 :   miners'   problem, 

127 
Moore,  Right  Rev.  R.  C,  Virginia,  48  ;  portrait,  opp.  50 
Mormons,    116,    118  ;   missionary   character,   128-130 ;   strength,   130- 

135  ;   weakness,   135-138  ;   our  methods  of  work  among  them, 

138-139 
Morris,  Right  Rev.  B.  W.,  in  Oregon,  155  ;  portrait,  opp.  158 

Nashotah,   beginning  of,   66 
Nebraska 

Bishop  Clarkson,  119 
Nevada 

Bishop  Whitaker,   119 
Nevius,  Rev.  R.  D.,  in  Oregon  and  Washington,  156-157 
New  England 

Bishop  Griswold,   46-47 
New  Orleans 

First  establishment  of  Church   in  Louisiana  Territory,   86 
Nichols,  Right  Rev.   W.   F.,   portrait,   opp.   158 
Niobrara,   Indian  missionary  district  of,   Bishop  Hare,   104-109 
Northwest    Territory,    acquisition,     13-16 ;     Bishop    Kemper,     64-74 ; 
Bishop  J.  C.  Talbot,  117-118 

Ohio 

Bishop  Chase,  53 
Oregon 

American     settlement,     144-145;     Bishop     Scott,     147.     154-155; 
Bishop  Morris,   155  ;   Rev.   R.   D.   Nevius,   156-157 
Oregon  territory,   acquisition,   24-30 

Otey,  Right  Rev.  J.  H.,  bishop  of  Tennessee  and  Mississippi,  54,  76- 
80  ;   portrait,   opp.    p.   78 

Pacific    coast,    Webster's    speech,    142-143 ;    first    Christian    service, 

143  ;   problems,    160-165 
Parker,   Rev.   Octavius,   in  Alaska,   169-170  ;   portrait,   opp.   166 
Peake,   Rev.  E.  S.,   in  Minnesota,   among  Indians,   102 
Philadelphia,    fir.st   General   Convention,    1789,   37 

Pierce,  Rev.  C.  C,  in  Northern  California,  151-153  ;  portrait,  opp.  150 
Polk,    Right    Rev.    Leonidas,    Arkansas    and    the    Southwest    and    of 

Louisiana,   87,   116 
Portland,  Oregon 

Good   Samaritan  hospital,   155  ;   St.   Helen's  Hall,   155 
Prevost,   Rev.   J.   L.,   at  Tanana,  174 
Provoost,    Right   Rev.    Samuel,    consecrated,    38  ;    confirmations,    39 

Ranchmen,   126 

Randall,  Right  Rev.  G.  M.,  in   Colorado,   119 

Rowe,   Right  Rev.  P.   T.,  in  Alaska,  175-179  ;   portrait,  opp.   174 

St.   Helen's  Hall,   Portland,    155 
Scandinavians,   in  Minnesota,   93-96 


212 


Index 


Scott,  Right  Rev.  T.  F.,  in  Oregon,  147,  154-155 

Seabury,  Right  Rev.  Samuel,  consecrated,  37-38  ;   confirmations,  39 

Smith,   Right  Rev.  Robert,  no  confirmations,  40 

South  Dakota 

Bishop  Hare,  109 
Spalding,  Right  Rev.  F.   S.,  portrait,  opp.  158 
Spanish  possessions,   21-24 

Spokane,   Missionary  District  of.   Bishop  Wells,   158-159 
Stuck,   Ven.  Hudson,   in  Alaska,   181 

Talbot,  Right  Rev.  J.  C,  Bishop  of  the  Northwest,  117-118 
Talbot,  Right  Rev.  Ethelbert,  in  Wyoming  and  Idaho,  125 
Texas,  annexation,  22-23 

Tuttle,   Right  Rev.  D.   S.,   in  Utah,   Idaho  and  Montana,   119-124  ;   in 
Missouri,  123  ;  portrait,  opp.  118 

Utah 

Bishop  Tuttle,  119-124  ;  Mormons,  116,  118,   128-139 

Virginia 

Low   spiritual  state,   47  ;    Bishop   Moore,   48 

Washington 

Rev.  P.  E.  Hyland,  156  ;  Rev.  R.  D.  Nevius,  157 
Webster,   Daniel,   speech  concerning  the  Pacific  Coast,   142-143 
Wells,  Right  Rev.   L.  H.,  in  Spokane,   158-159 
Whipple,   Right   Rev.    H.    B.,    Bishop   of   Minnesota,   91-93,    100-103  ; 

portrait,  opp.   94 
White,  Right  Rev.  William,   consecrated,   38  ;  few  confirmations,   39  ; 

portrait,   frontispiece 
Whitman,   Dr.   Marcus,   arrives   in  Oregon,   27  ;    rides  to  Washington, 

28  ;  leads  colonists  to  Oregon,  29  ;  massacred,  29-30 
Whitaker,   Right   Rev.  O.  W.,   in  Nevada,   119 
Wingfield,  Right  Rev.  J.  H.  D.,  in  Northern  California,  150 
Wisconsin 

Bishop  Kemper,  74-76 


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